


Watch the Queens Conquer

by Rowena_Bensel, Valnorsith



Category: Transformers: Prime
Genre: (( Also a reason you won't find out until later. )), (( And the humans are shuffled so there's more variety )), (( Rafael is fifteen he's gonna say shit a couple times okay? )), (( We've got the badass Femme 'Bots and 'Cons (and Arc) )), (( and Jackson is a military brat so )), Age Swap, Alternate Universe - Always a Different Sex, Alternate Universe - Character Swap, Multi, genderbend au, teenage-typical swearing
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-09
Updated: 2020-07-17
Packaged: 2021-02-27 15:07:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 37,997
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22179031
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rowena_Bensel/pseuds/Rowena_Bensel, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Valnorsith/pseuds/Valnorsith
Summary: After three years of silence and low activity, the Decepticons resurface on Earth to continue their fight with the Autobots over the planet's supply of energon, led by their recently returned leader, Megtrona. After one of these first skirmishes brings Mikoto Nakadai and two others into the crossfire, Optima Prime decides to bring the children under Autobot protection. Little did she know how this decision would affect not only her team, but the entire War.
Comments: 17
Kudos: 24





	1. Darkness Rising Pt 1

**Author's Note:**

> So yup, it's a Genderbend AU! This is an AU that's been in the works for a few years, and is no where near done, but I decided that this is gonna be my main side project when the muse for AllSpark disappears, and I really wanted to share what I have so far (plus it's a crappy day, so impulse decisions fit!). A lot of this will just be going over the episodes of TFP, but I am hoping to develop some more character driven subplots and scenes with the help of the Third Person Limited POVs I'm using. 
> 
> The femme characters (and mech!Arcee) have been given different names to help differentiate them from their canon counterparts. It should be obvious who is who, but just in case, I'm putting a cast list in this chapter's end notes in order of appearance, so feel free to reference it as needed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Legend  
> "Word word word." - Talking  
> " _Word word word._ " - Talking over comm/phone  
> " ** _Word word word_** " - Talking in another language  
>  _Word word word_ \- Thinking

Cliffstar rumbled down a quiet country road, speeding over a rise after deftly avoiding yet another pothole. “The county commission needs to get some people out here,” the red Challenger muttered to herself. “Now, where was I?”

“ _You reached the top of the cliff,_ ” her partner Arc said on the other end of the comm line. 

“Right! Okay, so there I was on the lookout, scanning, checking out the view, when out of nowhere, these high beams light up my rearview. I have no idea what’s going on, then it hits me. I’m illegally parked.”

“ _Another parking ticket?_ ” The question was flat and dry, like he had expected it. 

“Better. The boot.”

“ _Big metal tire clamp, impossible to remove._ ” 

Cliffstar internally grinned. “Bingo! So the local police do their thing, and I let them get a block away. That’s when I kick off my new shiny shoe and… Ba-bam!”

“ _New York’s finest soil themselves._ ”

“You know me Arc. You mess with the Cliffstar-“

“ _And you get the horns,_ ” Arc finished for her, as Cliffstar laughed.

“That’s right.”

“ _Not sure how that complies with Autobot rule number one; keep a low profile._ ”

“What can I say, Arc?” the Challenger defended, tilting her mirrors slightly to look at the meadows and fields around her. “Searching for energon on this dust ball is more boring than one of Ultra Magna’s speeches. Almost makes me miss the Decepticons.”

“ _Like Jasper, Nevada’s a party?_ ” Arc asked. “ _We’re alone wherever we go on this rock, Cliff._ ”

“Yeah.” Cliffstar sounded a little dejected, then was distracted by the beeping of her sensors. “I’m getting a signal.”

“ _Need back up?_ ”

“Do I ever need back up?” She made a sharp turn off the road, riding over a series of rolling hills until she reached the edge of a large circular canyon. Inside were many blue crystals, some almost as tall as a house, if not taller. “Oh, Wrencha’s gonna be happy, I just found a whole lot of energon.” 

Suddenly, the area grew dark as something moved over the sun. The shadow was the wrong shape for a cloud, and Cliffstar transformed into her bipedal mode and looked up, seeing a large ship flying above her. 

“Decepticons!”

A turret on the underside of the ship turned and fired laser bolts down on her. Cliffstar jumped to avoid the main blast, but the shockwave of the explosion sent her flying down into the canyon. She landed with a loud grunt right along side some of the energon crystals, and pushed herself up and onto her back just in time to see a set of doors on the underside of the ship open and several purple and black mecha landed with loud groundshaking thuds, approaching the edge of the canyon to look down on Cliffstar with red visored optics. 

She pushed herself to her pedes. “Hey, Arc,” she said over her radio. “About that back up....”

“ _On it, Cliff!_ ” Arc said, before cutting the connection. 

Cliffstar glared up at the mecha before her. Ten on one. Not the best odds, but she should be able to handle it. After all, they were only vehicons. “Fair warning, girls,” she said, “I’ll put some scratches in your pretty little paint jobs.” With that, she transformed and charged up the cliff side, flying into the air and transforming to deliver a punch as she landed.

* * *

Arc hastily switched his comm channel from his and Cliffjumper’s private one to the team’s general channel. “Arc to Optima, the 'Cons are back. Cliff might be neck deep in scrap.”

“ _Understood, Arc,_ ” Optima said. “ _Wrencha, can you track Cliffstar’s coordinates?_ ”

“ _I've locked onto her signal_ ,” Wrencha said. “ _But the team is scattered across time zones. We have to move fast._ ”

Arc drew up a map of their current patrols on his HUD, and cursed that Wrencha was right. Optima was in Iowa, Wrencha in Alaska, Bulka in Montana, and Enerbee in Arizona. Cliff was in New York State. 

“ _Arc, Bulka, Enerbee,_ ” Optima ordered, “ _rendezvous back at base and prepare to bridge to Cliffstar._ ”

Arc pulled an illegal U-turn, partly glad but mostly not caring that no cops were around to see the move, or see him speed from five to sixty-five in nanokliks. _We’re coming, partner_ , he thought as he quickly left Jasper behind. _Just hold on._

* * *

Cliffstar delivered a kick that sent a vehicon flying down into the canyon, then turned and backhanded one who was crouching to try and get under her guard. She whirled back and took a swing at another who was coming for her front, only to overextend and miss when she dropped back. A fourth vehicon snuck up behind her and delivered an elbow blow to the back of her neck, making Cliffstar cry out before being shoved into the pede of yet another opponent. She was kicked away and another - or was it one of the earlier ones, it was hard to keep track - slashed at her with sharpened talons that sent sparks flying as it scored a gouge across her chestplate and actually sliced through her right horn. The blow, and the kick that followed, was enough to send her flying back into the canyon, landing on top of one of the vehicons she had already disabled. 

She pushed herself to her pedes, and spotted the point of her horn sticking in the ground ahead of her. She lifted a servo to her helm and felt the stump, then growled at the vehicons, now climbing down the canyon wall to join her in the Pit. 

“Oh, you want the horns, do yah?” Her triple-barreled ion cannons transformed out. “You got ‘em.”

She started firing at the ‘Cons, her first blasts catching them unprepared and one got blown up for it, her body crumpling against the rocks. The others transformed their own single barrel blasters and fired. With a speed contradictory to her bulky frame, Cliffstar danced around the blasts, only realizing too late that they instead were hitting the energon crystals behind her. It only took three volleys for the blasts to ignite the centermost crystals, and an eruption of blue flame burst from them. Cliffstar was engulfed, and felt herself lifted and pushed off the ground by the force of the explosion.

Her helm was spinning, her optics temporarily glitched out as her system diagnostics screamed warnings on her HUD. Burns on her plating, line ruptures, equilibrium sensors knocked out of alignment, audials and optics needing reset. Her chrono seemed to blink in and out, skipping ahead several nanokliks at a time. When that finally reset itself, she felt two pairs of servos grab her arms and start dragging her against first stone, then grass. Her optics and audials finally reset just in time to see the metal floor of a lift and hear it whirl to life, raising them up. 

_Slag._

* * *

On the bridge of the _Nemesis_ , the Decepticon’s flagship, Shatterglass stood at the end of the catwalk that extended to the floor to ceiling window screens of the vessel. They and the console before her showed the same image: the smoke cloud billowing and flashes of blue from the fires below. The flames themselves were quickly dying, but the smoke would linger unless dissipated somehow. 

She scowled as she watched. The scans had said this deposit would be very profitable, likely enough energon to last a few orn. Open to the air, so operations would have needed to be completed quickly before any humans came snooping around, but easily doable. And now it was all gone, partly because of incompetent troops, but mainly because of a certain Autobot.

“What a waste,” she said, waving her servo and the window screens darkened again. The urgency lift from the cargo hold to the bridge opened, and two of the four surviving vehicons stepped onto the bridge, dragging a much worse-off Cliffstar between them. 

“Are you happy, Cliffstar?” she asked. “You prevented me from claiming the deposit. But in the process, you denied your teammates the chance to claim it themselves.”

Cliffstar lifted her helm up, a cocky smile just barely covering the scowl she’d had before. “Small talk, Shatterglass? I thought we knew each other better.” She coughed, smiling more when the energon she spit out landed on Shatterglass’s pede. “So, where’s your master?”

Shatterglass ignored the spittle, simply crossing her arms behind her back. “You should be less worried about her….” She stalked around the group, stopping just behind one of the vehicons. A smirk crossed her lips. “And worry more about me.”

In a flash, she lunged, one servo shoving Cliffstar’s helm forward, while the other dove into the newly exposed cabling at the base of her helm. Her talon found a cable and with a flex, sliced through it. Cliffstar gave an aborted cry of pain before slumping even more in the vehicons’ hold, having fallen into stasis. 

Shatterglass extracted her servo, taking a moment to smirk in satisfaction before crossing her arms again and issuing orders. “You two, take her to the brig, and settle her in for a long stay. With her transponder broken, the Autobots won't be looking for her any time soon. Helmsmech, set a course for the next coordinates.” She let the vehicons pass, then walked to the end of the catwalk again, a wave of her servo activating the window screens again.

* * *

After he got to base, Arc had wanted to just bridge to Cliff's coordinates immediately, but logic had him first bridge Optima back. He would have left them, but Optima convinced him to wait for the others, and they would all go together. But the nanoklik the bridge was stable, he was the first through it. Wrencha had set it to open in the air, so he transformed once outside and landed with his blaster drawn. The others landed along side him, but it quickly became obvious that they were the only ones there. 

Optima deactivated her blaster, walking over to the edge of the crater, and the team followed suit. “An untapped energon deposit.”

“What’s left of it,” Bulka said, the green giant crossing her arms. 

“The first Decepticon activity in three years,” Wrencha said. 

“That we know of,” Optima said. “If the Decepticons are actively seeking energon, they are likely preparing for her return.” 

Arc felt a shudder run over his frame, but did not linger on it, his worry for Cliffstar overcoming any fears. He moved to the front of their group, jumping down into the crater. Inside, vehicon corpses were charred and melted, obviously caught in the explosion. He paid them no mind, looking for red, not purple and black. 

Finally, he spotted something - Cliffstar’s horn, sliced off. “No!” He picked it up and showed it to Wrencha. 

Wrencha frowned, then turned when Optimia asked, “Wrencha, can you lock onto her position?”

Wrencha raised her arm, a panel opening to reveal her scanner’s screen. She invented harshly. “No.” She looked up. “Cliffstar’s life signal just went offline.”

Arc froze. No. No. Cliff wasn’t dead. She couldn’t be. He couldn’t lose her. Not like- His grip tightened on Cliffstar’s horn as he ended that train of thought. Cliff would never leave a horn behind. The only reason that would happen if she was captured and killed. She was gone. 

Arc barely registered the return to base, and kept hold of the horn, just barely listening as Optima and Wrencha discussed a memorial. Only when they all stood at the top of the silo, Optima before the spot they would place the cairn, did he come fully out of his helm. 

“We must not allow our anger at the loss of Cliffstar to impair our judgment,” she counseled. “As of today, only we five Autobots remain on this Earth. We owe it to ourselves, to the memory of Cybertron, to any Autobots in the galaxy seeking safe harbor, to humankind, and we owe it to our fallen comrade, to survive.”

Arc stepped forth and set Cliffstar’s horn on the ground. Then he started walking for the elevator. 

“Arc-” Optima said, but Arc didn’t let her finish whatever platitude she had ready. 

“If Cliff is gone, standing around here sulking is not going to bring her back. So unless anyone minds,” he turned around as he stepped into the elevator, “I think I’ll get back to protecting humankind.” The doors closed before anyone could respond to that.

* * *

Shatterglass was preparing for the shift change, making sure all was well on the bridge when Audial stepped onto the bridge. Instead of heading directly to her station, as was her wont when she took over, she went to Shatterglass, making the seeker turn from her conversation. 

“Audial, what is it? Has there been an issue in interrogating our guest?”

Audial shook her helm and her visor flickered to show a frequency line. “ _You think Jasper, Nevada’s a party? We’re alone wherever we go on this rock, Cliff,_ ” sounded between them.

Shatterglass smiled, flexing the digits of her left servo. “Ah, the one called Arc. Why neutralize just one Autobot, when we still hold the element of surprise? Send a team to apprehend him. I'll keep his partner company until he arrives. You have the bridge.” 

Audial nodded and went to her station, while Shatterglass left for the brig, feeling a bit giddy at the opportunity to get some long awaited petty revenge.

* * *

_Jasper, Nevada, the Entertainment Capital of the World,_ Mikoto Nakadai thought to herself as she stood at the drive-thru window of KO Burger, doodling on a napkin. The only burger joint in the town, and not even a very good one, just the last of a franchise that never really gained traction. It only survived cause the closest McDonalds was almost forty minutes away, and while people would drive that far for shopping at the mall, they wouldn’t for a greasy burger and salty fries. 

She looked up at a chime that said someone was at the drive-thru, and pushed the doodle of Godzilla destroying the KO sign out of the way. “Welcome to KO Burger, where every patty’s a knock out, may I take your order?”

“Yeah, two super combos, extra fries, with cokes,” the customer said, and Mikoto barely held a sigh when she recognized it was Vince.

“Two super combos, extra fries, with cokes,” she repeated as she typed it into the computer. Carlos, the drive-thru cook, was standing close enough to hear, and started putting them together. “Anything else?”

“Yeah, how about you as a date to the party tonight, Nakadai?”

Mikoto closed her eyes and took a deep breath as she filled the sodas. _Here we go_. “Unfortunately, that is not on the menu, and is not available to special order. That will be five fifty-nine sir, at the window.”

She knew this probably pissed him off, so she only set the drinks on the window counter when he pulled up. And sure enough, as he was passing her the cash, not only did he drop the change so it fell on the floor and a nickel out the window, but deliberately knocked one of the drinks over, and it splashed all over Mikoto’s front and the floor. “Sorry,” he said flatly.

Mikoto closed her eyes and took a deep breath. _It's part of the Plan._ “It’s alright, sir. I’ll make you a new one real quick.” She took the money and put it in the till, then passed him the combos and filled up a new cup. He peeled out of the drive-thru much too fast. 

“What a jerk,” Carlos said, as Mikoto started to wipe up as much of the spill as she could. 

“It’s Vince,” she said, looking sadly at her doodle, which had been sacrificed. 

Carlos put his hand on her shoulder. “Hey, your shift is almost over. I’ll take care of this while you clean yourself up.”

Mikoto smiled. “Thanks, Carlos.” She went to the staff lockers and grabbed her bag, heading into the bathroom to change. Off went the KO Burger red and yellow polo and white hat. On went her pink t-shirt with long black sleeves. Her dark skinny jeans and black shoes had avoided most of the mess, so she then focused on fixing her hair, pulling it down from her work bun and restyling it into a half-bun, which let her show off the hot pink tips of her hair, while keeping her face framed by a pink streak on her left side. She'd placed some hairsticks into the bun and grabbed her bag when her phone went off. She checked the caller ID; it was Uncle Bill.

She flipped it open as she walked out of the bathroom and to the clock. “Hi, Uncle Bill.”

“ _Hey, Mikoto, you off yet?_ ” her host parent asked.

“Just clocked out.” She punched in her employee number and walked for the door when it dinged. “You working late tonight?”

“ _Yeah, I just wanted to check on you. I overheard a couple kids talking about a party tonight. You going?_ ”

Mikoto shook her head. “No, I’m not going. I wanted to get started on my science project, it’s due next Monday.”

_“Alright then. Be safe heading home.”_

Mikoto snorted as she walked out the door. “Don’t worry, Uncle Bill, this is Jasper. Nothing ever happens here.” A glint of something reflecting caught her eye, and she turned, and saw the most gorgeous motorcycle sitting there. “ ** _I love you._** ”

“ _What?_ ”

“Nothing. I’ll see you when you get home, Uncle Bill.” She hung up and tucked her phone away as she walked over to the bike. It was a dark slate blue, with some silver and red highlights here and there, and almost exactly how she pictured her dream bike, minus the rear fender decal of Mothra. “Hello gorgeous. Where have you been all my life?” She glanced around, but didn’t spot anyone around, so she ran her hands over the seat and fender. “ ** _Nice._** ” She couldn’t help herself and swung a leg over to sit on the bike, taking hold of the handle bars and getting a feel for it. “It might take some saving up, but someday I will own a bike like you.”

“Are you talking to your motorcycle?”

Mikoto looked up and saw Sierra Barnes and Jenny Rogers standing next to her and the bike. The two girls started giggling as Mikoto flushed and stuttered out, “Sierra! I- no, **_I wasn’t- I mean-_** ” She started to babble in Japanese, then stopped herself with a face palm. 

“It’s okay, Mikoto, I’m just teasing,” Sierra said. “So, you coming to the party tonight?”

“Sierra, this is Mikoto Nakadai you’re talking to,” Jenny said. “She never goes anywhere that’s not school or work.”

“Jenny!” Sierra lightly shoved her friend's arm, but Mikoto shook her head. 

“No, she’s right. Sorry, Sierra, I was planning to work on my science project tonight.”

Sierra sighed. “Alright, but you can’t be all work and no play, Mikoto. You need some excitement in your life.”

Mikoto smiled at the other girl. _Excitement's not part of the Plan._ "Thanks, but-"

Suddenly, bright lights illuminated the three girls, and they covered their eyes as they tried to see what it was. Two purple cars had their high beams on, pointed right at them. Then they gunned their engines and charged right at them!

Sierra and Jenny screamed and ran off, around the side of the KO building. Mikoto tried to jump off and follow, but the motorcycle suddenly revved to life, popping a wheelie, and it was all Mikoto could do to hang on as it turned and charged right at the cars. She screamed as they just barely squeezed between the cars on one wheel, sparks flying from the friction. 

“Do not let go!” a man’s voice called out as the motorcycle raced down the street. 

“ ** _Who said that!?_** ” Mikoto shouted, reverting to her birth language in fear. 

The cars caught up and tried to squish the motorcycle and Mikoto between them, but they dropped back so suddenly, the cars bounced off each other, and they sped between them and turned down an alley, where the motorcycle finally stopped and Mikoto jumped off. 

“ ** _What are you?_** ” she asked, backing away before repeating herself in English. “What are you?”

“I don’t exist,” the motorcycle said, the same man’s voice quite angry. “Tell anyone about me, and I will hunt you down.”

Mikoto retreated one, two steps, then turned and bolted down a side alley from the one they’d been in. She didn’t get far before she heard an engine and when she looked, one of the purple cars was catching up. “I don’t even know him! Leave me alone!”

The motorcycle jumped over the car, and pulled up alongside her. 

“Get on!” he shouted, and Mikoto didn’t need telling twice, jumping and holding on for dear life as they took off out of the alley and down the street. She couldn’t hear anything but the wind in her ears, but she felt a sudden heat pass over her head, and looked up to see red lasers, like some sci-fi movie, shooting over her. She pressed herself lower across the motorcycle as they sped onto the highway, ducking and weaving between cars. 

“Why are those guys shooting at us?!”

“There’s no ‘us’, kid,” the motorcycle said. “And those aren’t guys.”

“But why are they shooting!?”

“Why do you think!?”

Mikoto risked a look back, and saw a yellow and black sports car roaring up the highway and slammed into one of the purple cars, causing it to hit the other and they briefly spun out, while the yellow car sped up to get between them and Mikoto and the motorcycle. 

“Friend of yours?” Mikoto asked.

“Family,” the motorcycle replied. 

The yellow car did its best to block off the purple cars, but one managed to speed up next to it and slam it into the guardrail, causing it to skid to a stop while they closed the distance.

“Um, they’re gaining on us!” Mikoto said. 

“I see them.” The motorcycle sped up faster, and then made a right between orange barrels set up to block an exit to a half-finished bridge. 

“ ** _What are you doing!?_** ” Mikoto shouted when Arc showed no signs of slowing down. “You’re gonna get us killed!”

“Just hang on, kid!” The motorcycle pulled a sharp right and leapt over the guardrail, skidding and sliding down the embankment of the drainage canal the bridge went over. Mikoto pressed herself against the bike’s frame as she screamed, hoping beyond hope that the crash wouldn’t be bad as she felt them leave the ground. 

But, to her surprise, the landing was fairly smooth, not much worse than the landing of her plane when she came to America. The bike skidded in a half circle to a stop, and Mikoto opened her eyes. Confirming she was, indeed, still intact, she looked up and saw a black haired boy in a grey vest and white shirt standing in front of her, a dropped RC controller at his feet. 

“Whoa!” he said.

Mikoto couldn’t help but smile. “You have no idea.” With shaky legs, she got off the bike, and the boy ran up to her to help. She rested an arm on his shoulders and quickly introduced herself. “I’m Mikoto.”

“Jackson,” the boy said, and he was about to say something more when they heard engines. Looking up, Mikoto saw the purple cars riding down the embankment. But when they launched off the edge of the canal, they started to change shape, like a Lion from Voltron or something. What landed in the canal were two enormous purple, silver and black robots with red visors staring down at them

Mikoto instinctively gripped Jackson’s shoulder and took a step backwards, only to hear a similar sound behind her. She whipped her head around, saw the motorcycle was changing as well, and ran for the side of the canal, dragging Jackson with her. Behind her, she heard the motorcycle say, “This ends here, ‘Cons!” Then, loud footsteps running. 

When they reached the canal wall, Mikoto and Jackson turned around and watched the motorcycle charge the cars while dodging laser blasts. He jumped into the air and kicked one to the ground with a high kick, before dodging a shot from the second and getting a few more kicks out on it. 

“W-What are they?” Jackson asked, inching just a little closer to Mikoto’s side. She squeezed his shoulder.

“Talking cars that turn into robots? Or the other way around?” Mikoto almost wanted to shake her head, but she couldn’t tear her eyes from the fight. 

The motorcycle exchanged more blows with the one car, getting in close to deliver reaching punches to its face. 

“This. Is. For. Cliff!” he shouted, punctuating each word with a hit and ending on one that cracked the car’s head back. It turned back to him and started shooting, along with the other one, while the motorcycle dodged back with a series of flips. Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough, and one shot hit his chest and sent him flying down the canal. 

“Oh no,” Mikoto said, looking for a way to escape before the cars discovered them, when the sound of a new engine was heard and the yellow and black car from before sped off the end of the bridge above them, transforming mid air until another robot landed on one of the purple cars in the face before punching the other one. 

Now that things had paused a moment, Mikoto could get a proper look. While the motorcycle had been thin and small compared to the purple cars, who were sharp and angular, this new one was more rounded and about the same size as the cars. It took a step back off the car it landed on, and there was a loud crunch. It froze, looked down and lifted its foot, revealing the crushed remains of an RC car. The yellow robot turned to her and Jackson and made a whirring sound, which Mikoto roughly could interpret as “Sorry.”

“No problem, really,” Jackson said, just before a shot from the purple cars knocked the yellow robot off their feet. They turned and landed on their face, and one of the purple cars came up and stepped on their head to keep them down. The yellow car bucked and managed to roll over, as the purple cars aimed their blasters at their head. 

“Leave her alone!” Jackson suddenly shouted, and all three robots turned to face him and Mikoto. The boy flinched under their stare. “Please?”

“Bad call,” Mikoto said, grabbing his arm and pulling him along the canal. She could hear heavy footsteps behind her, meaning one of them was giving chase, and she pushed herself faster. There was a storm drain just ahead, large enough for a person to stand it, and she picked up Jackson to get him in before she followed. “Run!” She turned her head and saw one of the purple cars (of course it was the purple one) kneeling down and lifting a hand to grab her. She avoided the fingers and bolted after Jackson, making sure to keep him in front of her. “ ** _Go go go go go!_** ” She was certain she could feel the fingers about to grab her, before a loud crash and screech sounded behind her. 

She and Jackson turned around and saw the arm being pulled out of the drain, then the sound of crashing echoed around them. She jumped when the light at the end was blocked again, but this time it was the yellow robot, who beeped and buzzed at them. 

“Thank you,” Jackson said, and the robot buzzed again, before walking away. 

Mikoto waited a second, then she grabbed Jackson’s shoulder and pushed him further down the dark pipe. “Don’t look back. We’ve got to get out of here.”

“What did we just see?” Jackson asked.

“No idea, and I don’t think either of us want to find out.” Mikoto frowned into the darkness, but noticed Jackson’s backpack. “Got a light?”

Jackson nodded and pulled a flashlight out of his bag. “Mom insists I be prepared for anything.”

Mikoto took it and turned it on, happy to see it was very bright. “Will she be mad if you're late getting home?”

“No, she’s working late tonight, I’ll be home before her.”

Mikoto nodded and they set off down the tunnel, looking for an access ladder or similar to get out. She did her best to ignore how her body was still singing from the adrenaline rush of the chase and fight. This was in no way part of the Plan.

* * *

Optima listened carefully as Arc and Enerbee explained what happened on Arc’s patrol, after Wrencha had cleared their medical check. 

“...And those ‘Cons would have been scrap metal if I hadn’t been distracted by the human,” Arc finished.

“Human?” Optima raised a brow. 

“:Two kids,:” Enerbee nodded and held up two digits.

“I guess the second one caught us in action, I don’t know. I was a little busy at the time,” Arc said, shrugging. 

“If the Decepticons are targeting us, anyone perceived as our ally will be at grave risk.” Optima looked to the mezzanine, a part of the base left over from when the base was a missile testing silo. It was currently just some extra storage for medbay parts, but if they opened up one of the back rooms for that…. In her chest, the Matrix pulsed, and Optima committed to her thought.

“What do you propose we do, Optima?” Wrencha asked. 

“We will bring the children here, and keep them under our protection.” She turned back to her team. “Enerbee, Arc, you will collect the children tomorrow and we will explain the situation to them.”

The team exchanged looks, but none of them questioned her order. Not that Optima thought they fully agreed to it, but it was good enough for now. The Matrix wanted this to happen, so she would listen. 

* * *

Mikoto had managed to get home not too-too late, after she’d escorted Jackson to his house, but she was unable to concentrate on anything, homework or fun. She just kept running the events through her head, over and over again, until she fell into a fitful sleep, with dreams she couldn’t remember. At school, she was a bit surprised to see Jackson in her first period class, Trigonometry. He was a few rows behind her, and closest to the door while she was by the window, so she just never noticed him in the first few weeks of school. He had tried to ask her about the night before, but she shushed him, as she very clearly remembered the motorcycle’s words when he - it - tried to drop her off the first time. 

_Tell anyone about me, and I will hunt you down._

It was a terrifying prospect, and one she was still musing when she walked out of the high school with her bag. She was one of the last out, as she had been talking with her English teacher about the homework, so she easily spotted Jackson standing under a tree when he waved at her. 

“Jackson, hey, I’m sorry about earlier,” she said as she went over.

“It’s okay,” Jackson said. “But can we talk about it now? I’ve been super excited just thinking about it.”

“I… don’t think that’s a really good idea.” Mikoto couldn’t help glancing around, as if the motorcycle would pop up at any moment. “How about we just keep last night to ourselves and forget it ever happened?”

Jackson looked like he was about to say something, but a car horn interrupted him. They looked for the source, and Jackson pulled on Mikoto’s sleeve with a smile. “Mikoto!”

“No, no, not again!” Mikoto took a step back as the yellow and black car pulled up to the curb next to them and opened their - its - door. It buzzed again, like the night before. “It wants us to get in?”

“No, just me,” Jackson said.

“How do you know that?”

“She said so.”

“What?” Mikoto looked at him with surprise. _He can understand it?_

“Yours is over there.” Jackson pointed behind her and Mikoto’s heart jumped when she saw the motorcycle, sitting right in front of the school steps. 

“I-I don’t really think….” She trailed off as she saw Jackson start climbing into the yellow car. 

“How’s it going?” the boy asked as the door closed. 

“Jackson!” Mikoto jumped for the door, but the car took off down the street. “Wait! Stop!” She took a few steps after it, but realized there was no way she’d catch up. She watched then leave, then looked back to the motorcycle. Could she…? 

_No! Stick to the Plan, and walk away._

She squared her shoulders and walked down the street, heading for the alley behind the high school that would take her to a cross street that would get her home much faster than walking around the building. Uncle Bill had shown it to her just before school started, having used it himself plenty of times. 

She didn’t get far before the motorcycle whipped around and stopped in front of her in the alley. She jumped back, but it spoke. “Relax, I just want to talk to you.”

Mikoto looked at the woman sitting on the bike. “Don’t you mean you and your girlfriend?”

“Kid, there’s a lot you don’t understand.” The woman flickered, then disappeared, revealing itself as a hologram. 

Mikoto started backing away. “No, no, I understand. The first rule of robot fight club, don’t talk about robot fight club.” She turned around and started walking out the alley. “What you need to understand is I have enough going on that I don’t need a bunch of crazy talking vehicles around trying to get me and other people killed!”

“Look!” And there was enough force in the tone Mikoto did, and found herself face to face with the motorcycle’s robot form. “Mikoto, is it? Your personal safety is exactly why Optima Prime has requested your presence.”

“Optima who?” Mikoto asked, taking a step back as the robot leaned closer to her. 

“You may be in danger because you are one of the few, one of the only, who has ever seen us.”

“Dude, what are you waiting for?” a voice behind them said, and Mikoto turned to see a boy, probably a year younger than her, standing at the end of the alley, skateboard in hand, wearing an orange hoodie and jeans with his hair spiked up high. “Go with him!”

“Slag,” the motorcycle said. 

“Who are you?” Mikoto asked. 

“Rafael Esquivel,” the boy said, walking into the alley. “I saw the bike and wanted a picture of it.” He lifted his phone and snapped a picture of the robot and Mikoto. “This is even cooler.” He came closer as Mikoto turned back to the robot.

“You were saying?”

“This does not happen all the time, trust me,” he said, and transformed back into his motorcycle form. “Hop on, both of you.”

“Awesome!” Rafael slung his skateboard onto his back and jumped on the motorcycle. “What’s your name?”

“Arc.” The motorcycle tilted its wheel at Mikoto. “Well?”

Mikoto hesitated a minute, then sighed and walked over. “Back up, I’m the one with a license here.”

“And how do you know I don’t have one?” But he was backing up anyway, so Mikoto just got on. Once she was settled, Arc took off, and they soon caught up with the yellow car and Jackson. They drove out of town, along a long highway leading across the desert. Rafael pumped a fist into the air, shouting “Whoo!” almost directly into Mikoto’s ear.

“Why did he have to come along?” Mikoto asked Arc. 

“Rules,” was the just as irritated reply. 

Not long after this, they came to a T-intersection, where the road ran in front of a giant mesa. But instead of slowing down for the turn, the yellow car just kept going straight, Arc right behind them. 

“ ** _What?!_** ” Mikoto tried to hit the brake, but Arc just kept going, and then the rock wall in front of them moved aside, revealing a lit tunnel. The small convoy entered it, following a short curve before coming out into a large room, almost bigger than any other Mikoto had been in. 

The room seemed to curve around a mezzanine of concrete, which was on the right of the entrance. An alcove was cut into it, and a giant terminal was set there, looking like something from sci fi. In front of it, another robot stood. They were wider than Arc and the yellow robot, and mostly white with orange accent colors. A fourth robot, this one very round and almost entirely olive green, was further in the room, but came closer as Arc and the yellow robot came to a stop. Beyond them was a doorway that presumably led further into the mesa. Mikoto and Rafael got off of Arc while Jackson climbed out of the yellow robot. Once they did, the vehicles changed to their robot forms. 

The white robot looked them over with a critical eye. “I thought there were two?” A woman’s voice came from them. 

“Haven’t you heard, Wrencha?” Arc asked, hand on his hip. “Humans multiply.” He and the yellow robot walked to the side of the room, while Mikoto and the boys looked around.

“I’m Jackson Darby,” Jackson said, holding a hand out to Rafael, who smiled and shook it. 

“Rafael Esquivel.” He looked to Mikoto. “And I know you, Mikoto Nakadai. My sister’s in your class.”

Mikoto nodded. “That’s me.”

She might as well have not bothered though, as Rafael immediately turned his attention away and started walking towards the green robot. “What’s your name?”

“Bulka,” they said, with a woman’s voice as well. 

“That suits you,” Rafael said. “What do you turn into, an SUV?”

“Yeah, good guess.”

Rafael smiled. “I bet you use a wrecking ball for a punching bag.”

Bulka’s eyebrows - robots had eyebrows! - raised slightly. “You know, that’s not that bad an idea.”

“Awesome.”

Jackson had remained by Mikoto’s side, but spoke up now so he could be heard. “So, if you’re robots, who built you?”

Wrencha scoffed. “Puh-lease!”

Heavy footsteps came up behind Mikoto and Jackson, and the pair turned to see a tunnel they hadn’t noticed before, and easily the largest of robots walking out of it. They were tricolored, blue on the feet and lower legs, silver on the thighs, blue hips, silver stomach, red chest and arms, and a blue head with a silver face. Mikoto prepared to step back, but for some reason, that response was not instinctive. She vaguely noticed Rafael had rejoined her and Jackson when the robot spoke. 

“We are autonomous robotic organisms from the planet Cybertron, also known as Autobots. I am Optima Prime, the leader of the Autobots here on Earth.”

Mikoto, almost against reason, stepped forward, subconsciously keeping her right arm slightly extended as if to block access to Jackson. “ ** _Why are-_** ” she paused and cleared her throat, switching back to English. “Why are you here?”

“We are acting as your planet’s protectors from the Deceptions,” Optima said. 

“Those glitches who tried to bump is off last night,” Arc offered from where he stood to the side.

“Okay.” Mikoto looked back to Optima. “Why are they here?”

Optima knelt down. “A fair question, Mikoto. In part, they are here because our planet is uninhabitable, ravaged by centuries of civil war.”

“Centuries?” Rafael asked, coming to stand next to Mikoto with Jackson. 

“Why were you fighting a war?” Jackson asked. 

“It was one of many factors, Jackson,” Optima said. She tapped the side of her helm, and a hologram projected itself in front of the teens, showing a planet that seemed to be made of bright silver and gold with a blue glow showing from geometric canyons across its surface. “At the start, it was a war of a political sort, volatile, but peaceful. During it, I worked alongside one I considered a sister to correct the inequality of a flawed system. But as events escalated and tensions rose, so too did Megtrona’s resentment until I could barely recognize her. Eventually, we had a parting of ways and soon after, Megtrona declared war against all who opposed her, even those once deemed friends.” The image changed, the planet scorched and darkened, then it changed to a battlefield, showing a fight between two different groups of robots, some wearing a symbol of a squared off face or mask, others the symbol of a pointed one. Slowly it shifted, to show a new robot standing on a rise, directing others to attack. They were silver in color, and very large, in size and presence. Broad shoulders were spiked, a narrow waist emphasizing them, sharp curves and angles made up the rest of the body, and a sword extended from the back of a wrist. Most striking to Mikoto though were the eyes. Ruby red under heavy brows, and held a look of both malice and thrill, the enjoyment of the fight. She shuddered, even though it was just a picture. 

“The combat was fierce, and waged for centuries. As time went on, our planet’s supply of energon, the lifeblood of all cybertronians, was depleting. Both sides gathered as much as they could and sent much of it offworld, to planets like this one. But this only made the problem worse, and we eventually had to leave to survive. Our hunt for these energon stores has led us here, to Earth.” The planet again, darker than before, with no more glow, and ships leaving in droves. One was then shown, floating above the Earth. 

The spell was broken when Rafael faked a yawn. “Is there gonna be a quiz?”

Mikoto gave him a short glare, then turned back to Optima as she turned off the hologram. “But, what does Megtrona, or any of this, have to do with us? We’re just kids.”

“After last night’s attack, it is likely the Decepticons believe you to be our allies. And while Megtrona had not been seen or heard from in some time, I fear her return is imminent. If I am correct, it could be catastrophic." 

Picturing Megtrona’s eyes in her mind, Mikoto couldn’t help but agree with Optima. _I really hope she’s wrong._

* * *

Shatterglass flexed her digits as she stood on the bridge, thinking over her interrogation. Cliffstar was as stubborn and irreverent a prisoner as she remembered, though she of course paid the price for every quip and insult. If only she could use the threat of Arc against her, and vice versa, but her troops had failed in that task, as well as eliminating the human who had accompanied him. It would not do for their existence on this world to be revealed to the public; but perhaps they would be so scared they wouldn’t say anything. And without proof, who’d believe them? 

She was jarred from her musings when she heard Audial’s approach. Not from her pedesteps though, but from a transmission pinging from her visor. The signature of them was one Shatterglass knew very well, the second signal from her in a long time. She was a leader though, preparing for a major offensive. It would stand reason to double check.

“Those transmissions are emanating from deep space, Audial,” she said, turning to face the officer. “I would hate to waste the energon, unless you were absolutely certain.”

Audial gave a deep nod.

Shatterglass couldn’t hide the smile that crossed her face, though she kept it as small as possible as she turned to the vehicon on bridge duty that day. “Then lock on transmission coordinates, and activate the spacebridge.”

The vehicon tapped on her console, and the terminal’s screen lit up with filling bars and spinning disks as, far above them, the spacebridge that had taken much effort to complete spiraled open. Shatterglass turned back to the windows, waving them open as a voice was heard through every comm on the ship, personal and external. 

“ _Decepticons! I have returned!_ ”

_Welcome home, master._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Genderbend Cast  
> Cliffstar - Cliffjumper  
> Arc - Arcee  
> Optima Prime - Optimus Prime  
> Wrencha - Ratchet  
> Bulka - Bulkhead  
> Enerbee - Bumblebee  
> Shatterglass - Starscream  
> Audial - Soundwave  
> Megtrona - Megatron  
> Tremair - Skyquake  
> Wheela - Wheeljack  
> Changling - Makeshift  
> Knock Out (KO) - Knockout  
> Breakin - Breakdown  
> Turretulas - Airachnid  
> Direwind - Dreadwing  
> Smokeveil - Smokescreen  
> Shockrider - Shockwave  
> Ultra Magna - Ultra Magnus  
> Prediqueen - Predaking
> 
>  **Technical Notes:**  
>  Autobots have adopted an understanding of human time units and will use them when interacting with humans to prevent confusion. Internal musings or in conversation between each other, they’ll use their native cybertronian time units. Decepticons will use cybertronian time units almost exclusively.
> 
> Nanoklik - 1 Second  
> Klik - 1.2 Minutes  
> Breem - 8.3 Minutes  
> Cycle - 1 Hour  
> Joor - 6.5 Hours  
> Dium - 1 Day  
> Orn - 13 Days  
> Quartex - 6 Months  
> Groon - 1.71 Years  
> Vorn - 82 Years  
> Teravorn - 1024 Years


	2. Darkness Rising Pt 2

_They seem to be taking it well._

Arc leaned against the wall by the entrance tunnel as Optima explained their situation to the kids. Mikoto, the girl, seemed protective of the younger boy, Jackson, but receptive. The other one, Rafael, was excited, that was obvious. 

“Okay, so the Decepticons could be after us because they think we’re friends,” Mikoto summed up. “So, we spot any weird vehicles, call 911. Was that all you wanted?” She turned to look at the tunnel they’d come in from. 

“Are you kidding?” Rafael asked. “This is the coolest thing that’s happened in Jasper since ever! I’m not leaving Bot-swanna until they kick me out.”

 _Might be sooner if you act like that_ , Arc thought.

“For now, I believe it is best that you three remain here under our watch,” Optima said, standing up. “At least until we can determine our enemies’ intentions.”

“Optima, with all due respect,” Wrencha said. “The children are in as much danger here as anywhere else.”

That wasn’t a surprise. Arc wasn’t entirely sure how he felt about having the kids around, but he knew Wrencha was not a fan. She had a hard enough time getting work done as was, she didn’t want to play babysitter. 

“Hey!” Rafael said, glaring up at the medic.

“They have no protective shell,” she said. “If they get underpede, they’ll go ‘squish’!” She stomped a pede to demonstrate. 

Optima simply smiled and rested a servo on her hip. “Then, Wrencha, we’ll simply have to watch our steps.”

Suddenly an alarm went off, causing everyone to look up. Wrencha turned back to the command console. Mikoto stepped closer to Jackson. “What’s that?”

Enerbee turned to the kids and beeped at them. Arc was ready to translate when Jackson surprised him, and the rest of them, by doing so instead. “Proximity sensor. Someone’s up top.”

“You can understand Enerbee?” he asked.

“Yeah,” Jackson adjusted his glasses. “I don’t know how, but I do.”

“It’s Agent Darby,” Wrencha said, frowning again.

“I thought you guys were a secret?” Rafael asked. 

“Special Agent Darby is our designated liaison to your government, and the outside world,” Optima explained. “But as she only tends to visit when there are issues, it may be best that you did not meet her at this time.”

Mikoto sighed. “So, I can cross ‘hiding from a government agent’ off my bucket list.”

“What, you too?” Rafael asked. The three scurried behind a crate and Arc decided to help out by stepping in front of it, further hiding them from view. 

The elevator dinged, and Juno Darby came stalking out, her face a stormcloud. Her heels clicked on the floor in time with her words. “Seven wrecks, thirty-four fender benders, a three hour traffic jam, which I happened to get stuck in, and of particular note, numerous reports of a blue motorcycle of unknown make and a black and yellow custom Urbana 500 blazing their way through Jasper!” She stopped at the mezzanine railing, resting her hands on it as she leaned towards Optima. “Anything I should know, Prime?”

“Mom?” Jackson said quietly, and it took a lot for Arc to not look back in surprise. But, there was a resemblance, black hair, blue eyes, same jawline…. 

“We have the situation under control, Agent Darby,” Optima said. 

Juno’s eyes just narrowed. “They’re back, aren’t they?”

“If you’re referring to the Decepticons, I doubt they ever left. Your planet is much too valuable.”

“Then it’s time to wake the Pentagon.” Juno pulled a cell phone from her pocket, but Optimus raised a servo to stall her. 

“Hear me, Agent Darby. We are your best, possibly your only defense against the Decepticon threat.”

“You say that,” Juno crossed her arms, “and yet in five years, you’ve not managed to do anything to kick them off my planet.”

 _Not do anything? What right has…?_ Arc stood, stalking towards the mezzanine. “Hey fleshy! Did anyone get splattered on that freeway?”

“Yeah!” Bulka added. “Team Prime knows when to apply force,” there was a rip of metal behind him, and Arc knew Bulka had gotten to one of Wrencha’s tools, “and how to use it.”

“Bulka!” Wrencha snapped. _Called it._ “I needed that!”

“Enough!” Optima ordered, and turned back to face Juno. “Military involvement will only result in catastrophe. Perhaps you can condone widespread human casualties, Agent Darby. I, however, can not.”

Juno pursed her lips and snapped her phone shut. “Fine. Then you can do us both a favor and handle this! Under the radar! Or I will.” She turned on her heel and clicked back into the elevator, in a manner that just reminded Arc of Shatterglass. 

Arc crossed his arms as it. “Big bearings, for a human.”

Optima placed a servo on Arc’s shoulder. “Agent Darby is just concerned about her world, Arc. As she should be.”

“I- I can’t believe this!” Jackson said, running out from behind the crate with the other kids. “My mom’s been working with you for five years?!”

“That was your mom?” Rafael asked. “Wow. You must not be able to get away with anything.”

“Juno Darby has said she had a son,” Optima said, and Arc vaguely recalled that, followed by a threat of if anything happened to him because of the War.

“That’s me!” Jackson said. “We moved here five years ago for Mom’s new assignment, that must have been you guys!”

“If your mother never told you of our existence, it is likely she never intended you to learn of us,” Wrencha said. 

“Should we get you home?” Mikoto asked. “We don’t want you in trouble.” Arc could hear what she wasn’t saying, _Maybe then I can get out of this too_. 

_What’s wrong kid?_ he thought, _Not having fun?_

However, Jackson shook his head. “No, she always calls me before she heads home, and she never brings any work home. I should be fine as long as I’m home by curfew.”

Arc ignored how the slight disappointment on Mikoto’s face panged his spark. 

* * *

Shatterglass looked down on the mine. It was in a hollowed out mountain in what the humans called The Rockies. How original. This mine had been the most profitable of all, an early discovery after landing, and they were still harvesting, as evident by the activity down below. Drillers and cutters created a dull whir of background noise, punctuated by the pneumatics of the lift to bring crystals and cubes into the _Nemesis_ for further processing. It was the perfect place to show Lady Megtrona their progress while she was away.

“As you can see, my lady, our progress in collecting energon has been significant. We have amassed quite the stockpile from this mine alone, and if I can say so, I believe these crystals are the most pure.” She pointed to a vehicon on the next level. “You there, fetch us a sample!”

“Shatterglass!” 

Shatter felt a shudder run through her frame at the deep voice of her master and turned to face her. Megtrona strode out of the shadow of the shelf to the light, her silver frame shining in the light. Her broad shoulders were almost twice the size of Shatterglass’s own, and the sheer strength in her frame made all but one tremble before her. 

“Now that I have returned, it will be me who issues the commands.”

“Of course, Lady Megtrona.” Shatterglass bowed respectfully, a servo over her spark. “But as your second, surely some delegation is justified. Such as preparing for the army you have gathered in your absence?”

“My army will come,” Megtrona said, reaching into her subspace, “but my time away has yielded a more intriguing means of materializing them.” She pulled out a glowing shard of violet energon. Shatterglass jumped back, her wings stuck straight back. 

"That- that isn't?-"

"The Blood of the Unmaker. The very anti-spark itself," Megtrona answered her with a dark grin.

"Dark Energon." Shatterglass carefully crept forward, though her wings remained stiff. "You actually found more."

"Plucked from cosmic shores. And I wish to test one of the legends we didn't get the chance to last time."

 _The legends. She couldn't mean…?_ "You wish to bring back the dead?"

"Questioning me, Shatterglass?" Megtrona turned to her, servo flexing as if about to unsheath her blade. "Perhaps you would like to make the ultimate sacrifice, and be the first test subject?"

 _Is everything a challenge these days? The foes on her journey must have been extremely weak._ "As much as the idea tempts me, my lady, I believe I have a better one. If I may?"

Megtrona shifted just the slightest, from an attack stance to a waiting one. "Very well. Show me your alternative."

Shatterglass smiled and turned to one of their eradicon escorts. "Bring her down."

The eradicon nodded and took off, flying up to the _Nemesis_. A few minutes later, the lift came down to their level, carrying the eradicon and two vehicons, with Cliffstar cuffed between them. Though she did not much look like the loud and proud femme who had once ruined Shatterglass’s plans. Aside from the missing horn and her injuries from the energon deposit explosion, her frame was burned and scored by the marks of an energon prod, and one optic was dimmed and flickering from damage. The vehicons guided her off the lift, then pushed her to her knees in front of Megtrona. 

“Consider it a welcome home present,” Shatterglass said, giving her lady a slight bow. 

Cliffstar shook off the vehicons and looked to Shatterglass. “If I’m a present, you could have at least polished me up. Maybe wrap me with ribbon, or a big bow?”

“Shatterglass knows I like honest gifts.” Megtrona grinned sharply, taking a step towards Cliffstar and tilting her helm up. “You Autobots must be getting sloppy, if you can be captured and held so easily.”

“More like you ‘Cons have gotten stupider, shooting at me when I’m directly in front of an energon deposit,” Cliffstar shot back, uncowed by Megtrona’s presence. She hocked up a glob of energon and spat it at Megtrona’s chestplate. “So, you gonna give me an honest go at it?”

“You wish to fight for your freedom? Not many make that choice.”

“Well, I’m not going down a chained prisoner.” Cliffstar tried to push herself to her pedes, but one of the vehicons held her down. 

Megtrona’s grin turned feral. “Very well. Release her.” She stepped back, and Shatterglass made sure to back up far enough there was a wide space between herself and the combatants. 

The vehicons released Cliffstar’s cuffs and she swung her arms around, transforming both into her ion cannons. She wasted no time and fired on Megtrona, who nimbly dodged the blasts before extending her blade. 

“You need to do much better than that.” Megtrona charged, and Cliffstar threw herself to the side. She stumbled slightly, but did not fall, and managed to take two shots at Megtrona’s back. They connected, and Megtrona arched her back with a growl.

She turned around and charged again. Cliffstar did not let up on her barrage of shots, and Megtrona simply powered through them, even as they blackened her plating. Cliffstar tried to run again, but the previous stumble proved a fatal prelude, and her leg gave out, causing her to collapse. Megtrona was on her faster than a cyber strix on a petro-rabbit, talons wrapped around Cliffstar’s neck and holding her high. She scrabbled at the arm, but couldn’t even scuff the finish. 

“And I was expecting a proper challenge for once. I guess I’ll have to wait for your _fearless_ leader to show her face.” She drew her blade back, then stabbed up through Cliffstar’s chestplate, exiting through her back. Cliffstar let out a choked cry, energon dribbling from the side of her mouth, and her arms dropped to her side. 

Shatterglass almost wanted to applaud, but the fight was so short, it would insult her master to do so. She did smile though, to finally be rid of an annoying pest.

Megtrona dropped the body, and pulled the dark energon from her subspace once again, ignoring the spittle on her face. “Now we shall see if power born of darkness can reignite the spark.” She stabbed it down into Cliffstar’s chestplate, directly over her spark chamber. As she stepped back, the dark energon started to glow, an unnatural purple light, before _melting_ into the Autobot's chassis. 

The glow spread quickly through Cliffstar, energon lines becoming visible through the plating and biolights brightening. The Autobot growled and flipped herself around, catching sight of the vehicon escort. It - for it was no longer a femme, but a beast - launched itself at one of the vehicons and started mauling it, while the other was frozen in shock. The attacked vehicon tried to shoot the beast, but it actually bit into the blaster and tore it completely off. The blaster was thrown and landed just in front of Shatterglass and Megtrona’s pedes. 

The other vehicon finally snapped out of her shock and started firing on the beast, only to be tackled by it instead. Shatterglass turned to Megtrona, who was smiling at the mutilation. “Is this your plan? To create a feral army incapable of discerning friend from foe!?”

“This, Shatterglass, is the ultimate weapon,” Megtrona said. “A mindless beast, capable of putting fear into the sparks of all who see it.”

The beast pushed itself off the vehicon and turned around, shambling towards them. It roared a challenge and charged. Shatterglass threw herself to the side, but Megtrona did not flinch. She lunged with her blade once more, slicing downward. 

The beast stumbled to a stop at the edge of the shelf, then fell apart, its helm and one arm separated from the rest of its frame. The lower half fell over the edge, while the upper managed to catch itself and try to pull itself up. Megtrona retracted her blade and stalked towards it.

“There lies the indestructible seed of my army,” Megtrona said. She stomped her pede down on the beast and knocked it off the shelf, a loud crash resulting as it hit something below. “Once I learn to control it.”

Shatterglass looked to her master, then at the former Autobot, and smiled. 

* * *

It had been a few hours since Juno left, but Mikoto and the others were starting to make themselves comfortable. Optima first led the three on a tour of the base, which had apparently been an old missile silo before being given to the Autobots when they first arrived about five years ago. The Decepticons had arrived a few months later, but after some aggressive action as they claimed energon deposits for themselves, they seemed to disappear, until now. 

Once the tour was done, they were properly introduced to the different members of the team. Wrencha was the team's nominal second in command, and their medic and scientist. Bulka was their demolitions specialist, only instead of explosives, she used her fists. Enerbee was a scout, and the youngest of the team, who could only speak very basic Cybertronian due to an injury. Arc was a former intelligence officer, and now served as a scout and frontliner, which was another word for front line soldier.

After introductions, Jackson decided to stay by the computer monitors and console to talk with Enerbee, while Mikoto and Rafael explored the human-sized area, her for additional chairs from the one by the computers and him just for kicks. The mezzanine was a mostly empty area, aside from some boxes that apparently still needed to be moved, and a quick inspection of the doors on it led to a short hallway that included what looked like empty bedrooms, a bathroom, and a kitchen bare of just about everything but coffee and sugar. But there were some chairs, so Mikoto had Rafael help her carry them out so they’d have something to sit on.

Barely had they done that than a beeping sound came from the console that seemed to be Wrencha’s work station, and the white ‘Bot let out an exclamation. 

“Blasted Earth tech!” She turned to look at the rest of the Autobots. “Cliffstar’s life signal popped back online.”

“Who’s Cliffstar?” Rafael asked, setting his chair down. No one answered him.

“How is that possible?” Optima asked. 

“It isn’t.” Wrencha waved her hand at the console. “Another bug! The system is chocked full of them.”

Arc turned and looked up to Optima. “If there is any chance Cliff is alive-” He cut himself off, and Mikoto remembered something he’d said last night, fighting the Decepticons. _This is for Cliff._

“Wrencha, prepare medbay,” Optima said, a mask of some kind snapping over the bottom half of her face. “We may need it.”

“Hey!” Rafael called, and the Autobots looked at him. “What can we do?”

“Remain here with Wrenchs,” she told him, and turned away with the rest of the team, walking towards the tunnel she’d been in when they arrived. 

Rafael and Wrencha made twin sounds of disappointment, then Wrencha pulled a lever, and a series of rings in the tunnel lit up. There seemed to be a ripple effect, then a bright green, white, and purple vortex appeared. 

“Autobots, roll out!” Optima called, and the whole team transformed into vehicles, Arc and Enerbee the semi-familiar bike and car, Bulka into an SUV of some kind, and Optima into a big semi truck. They sped off into the light and disappeared! 

“What just happened!?” Mikoto asked, leaning on the railing of the mezzanine as if a closer look would reveal something. 

“I transported them to the designated coordinates via the groundbridge,” Wrencha told them. 

“What’s a groundbridge?" Jackson asked. 

“A scaled down version of spacebridge technology,” Wrencha said it slowly, as if explaining to children - which maybe they were but they weren’t five - and pulled down the switch to shut down the bridge. “Since we don’t possess the means or the energon required for interstellar travel-”

 _Oh._ “You’re stuck here,” Mikoto finished for her. “On Earth.” 

“With your people.” Wrencha sighed and gestured to the groundbridge. “But I managed to construct the groundbridge to enable travel from here to anywhere on your planet.”

“Whoa!” Rafael said. “Does it work on humans too?”

“Naturally.” 

"So, I could walk through there and visit my parents in Tokyo?" Mikoto asked, amazed. 

"Of course, within moments." Wrencha leaned down. "In fact, why don't I send out there right now, all three of you?"

"Watch it, Wrencha" Rafael said, snapping his fingers in her face. "After all, Optima said we were to stay with you."

Wrencha sighed. "Fine. But I have work to do, I can't stand around and be a sparkling sitter. Just… find something to entertain yourselves and stay out of my way." She walked off towards the back of the main room, where the medbay was situated. 

Rafael looked at Mikoto and shrugged. "So, what do you two nerds like to do, study for that math-decathlon?"

Mikoto rolled her eyes. "How stereotypical."

"What? I call it like I see it. You're a foreign exchange student, so you're probably book smart, and have no sense of adventure, from how you were rejecting coming here. And you," he turned to Jackson, "you skipped three grades, you should be in my sister Pilar's class. So, what do you do besides school?"

Jackson adjusted his glasses. "I like to play video games, and race RC cars. I need a new one though, cause Enerbee stepped on it last night."

"Cool, cool, we'll have to play together sometime." He looked back at Mikoto. "And you?"

Mikoto sighed. "Well, I like to draw, I can play the guitar and piano, and I sing a little. If I'm not doing that, I'm probably at work, or doing homework, maybe watching TV." 

"Wow. Okay, besides the guitar playing, you are boring. You ever think of going outside once in a while?"

"Hey, I go outside!" Mikoto crossed her arms. "I happen to bike to work, you know." Sports were not part of the Plan, thank you very much. 

"Oh wow, that's impressive," Rafael rolled his eyes and started walking to the stairs that got them up there. "I'm gonna look around, have fun being nerds."

Mikoto let out a huff, and looked to Jackson. "Is it just me, or is he a bit of a jerk?"

Jackson shrugged. "He's no Vince, at least. He's probably just bored."

“I guess.” Mikoto sat down, grabbing her backpack and pulling it closer to her feet. She pulled out a sketchbook, her pencil case, IPod, and headphones. “You have something to do?” 

“I got my laptop.” He looked at her book with curiosity though. “So you draw?”

Mikoto nodded. “Yeah. I’m not amazing, but I do pretty good. I have another book of sketches if you’d like to see.” She pulled it out at his nod and passed it to him. “Here.”

“Thanks.” He opened it and started flipping through. 

Mikoto put her headphones in, starting her playlist, and listened to the sounds of Slash Monkey as she opened her own book and turned to the next available page. She pulled a mechanical pencil out of her bag, and lightly pressed it to the paper, idly letting it run over the page as she tried to think of something to draw. The first image to come to mind was Megtrona’s, glaring at her from the projection, but Mikoto pushed it away. No, maybe later, but not now. The next that came up was Arc, and when she glanced down, her hand was already sketching the rough shape of a motorcycle. 

_Well, that settles that,_ she thought, and set to work.

She’d made a fair bit of progress, getting the rough sketch down and starting to work on the actual lines, when she felt heavy footsteps, and glanced up, pulling one side of her headphone’s back to listen. Wrencha was walking back their way, while Rafael was looking at something. 

“What’s this thing do?” he asked, reaching up to poke at it. 

“Broken, don’t touch it,” Wrencha told him, heading to the console. She didn’t even turn to see Rafael try and poke something next to it when she said, “Don’t touch that either.”

“Anything in here he can touch?” Mikoto asked, half teasing. The side of her mouth slipped into a smile when she saw Rafael shoot her a look.

Wrencha ignored the question, but groaned as an error message popped up on the screen of her console. “Blasted Earth tech.”

“Why are you using human computers if they irritate you so much?” Jackson asked. 

“Not by choice, I can assure you,” Wrencha said. “When our team first arrived here, our ship was damaged and we crashed. No injuries, thankfully, but much of our tech was damaged. When we were given this former missile silo to use as a base, I used most of what was salvageable to construct the groundbridge and my medbay. The rest I integrated with the tech handed down by the previous tenants. I make modifications as I can and see fit, but the lack of proper cybertronian tech is… disturbing.” She said that last word with all the disgust one might have when they encountered some unexpected roadkill. She typed in something, probably to correct the error, but instead at least a half dozen more messages popped up. “Ugh!”

Jackson leaned in and read the messages. “I think I can fix that.” He pulled his laptop and a cable out of his bag, and found a port on the human sized computers to link into. 

“Really?” Wrencha’s tone was completely disbelieving. “You know this is complex technology, don’t you? It’s not some child’s toy.”

Jackson didn’t listen to her, just looking at his laptop, typing and clicking a couple of things, then hitting one key with a definitive stroke. He looked up to Wrencha. “Now try.”

Wrencha frowned, but turned back to the console, hitting a key, and all the error messages disappeared. She looked back to Jackson with surprise, which turned contemplative.

“How’d you do that?” Mikoto asked. 

Jackson adjusted his glasses, which Mikoto was starting to pick up was a nervous trait of his. “My dad, he’s in military communications, and before he and Mom split up, he’d let me watch him work. I figured, if this base used to be military, the coding wouldn’t be too different, and it wasn’t, really.”

“Okay, I’ll admit,” Rafael said, coming back up the steps towards them. “That’s actually pretty cool. My dad works landscaping, all his ‘take-your-kid-to-work-days’ taught me was how to move rocks, dirt, and trees around.”

“Skills I’m sure won’t be at all useful in the future,” Mikoto teased, then slipped her headphones back on fully, turning her focus to making sure she got the curve of Arc’s seat right.

* * *

Arc swerved and weaved between the scattered ‘Con bodies, sliding under a toppled drill as he followed his teammates through the mine. If it was his choice, he’d be in the front, but against so many, he’d just be in too many crosshairs. Optima and Bulka had the power to just plow through, while Enerbee could get the stragglers. _Joys of having the lightest alt mode_. 

They came to the end of the tunnel, which opened into a tall cavern open to the sky. They all transformed and hid behind some crates at the tunnels’ entrance. It was obvious the ‘Cons had been there for some time, with metal platforms embedded in the walls, and a lift that looking up, Arc could see connected to the _Nemesis_ , hovering above them. 

Bulka whistled. “Quite the operation.” 

And that drew the blaster fire. 

Arc kept himself tucked down, taking shots quickly, but selectively, not wanting to waste the energon. The whole time he was scanning his surroundings. He ducked to avoid a very close shot, and as he raised his helm, a patch of red caught his optic. He looked closer. “It’s Cliff! I have a visual.”

“We’ll cover you, Arc,” Optima said. “Go!”

Arc didn’t need any encouragement. He vaulted over the crate, ran two steps, and transformed. He deftly avoided shots while speeding up the lift ramp, keeping his trajectory straight as possible before he launched into the air flying over the heads of two vehicons. He transformed, caught a servo against a beam of the lift, and spun himself to a stop on a horizontal bar. He used the other beams of the lift to send himself up above the level he’d spotted Cliff on, then launched himself at it. He barely made it, having to catch the edge and haul himself up, but when he did, he invented sharply at the condition she was in.

Her legs and an arm were gone, and she was laying in a pool of a dark purple goo, with swirls of black. It almost seemed like energon, but Arc had never heard of energon turning that color, even if mixed with oils. She barely had an EM field. He tried to get to her, but some vehicons chose that moment to fire on him. It damaged the section that Cliff was on and it - and her - started to fall. 

“Cliff!” He dove forward and just caught her arm before it fell over the edge. She nearly took him with her, all dead weight, and he was stuck there until the vehicons firing were taken out. “Let’s get you home, partner.”

Suddenly, Cliff lifted her face up, and Arc invented again. There wasn’t the carefree, lazy smile and confident gaze Cliff had off duty, or the determination she wore on the battlefield. Her optics were wide and dead and her face transformed into a gaping snarl, lit by some Pit-spawned purple glow that came from her internals. She growled at Arc, and jerked violently, as if trying to swipe at him if she only had her other arm. Arc recoiled, and both movements loosened his grip, and Cliff fell to the cavern floor, hitting a level and colliding with a cluster of energon crystals on the way down. 

Arc could barely process this before a cold laughter echoed through the cavern. Arc looked up and, high above, Shatterglass stalked to the edge of a level. 

“Well, so much for a pleasant reunion,” she said, and held out her arm, holding a device of some kind. “I’d stick around for the show, but I’d rather be on my nice shielded warship.” She activated it and dropped it, jumping into the air to transform and fly up the shaft of the lift, which was quickly retracted after her. 

The device landed on a cluster of energon crystals, and knowing Shatterglass, there was no way any of them could reach it in time to deactivate. 

“The joint’s gonna blow!” Bulka called, as Arc started to make his way down. 

“Autobots, roll out!” Optima ordered. 

Arc transformed the second pedes hit dirt, and he could feel Optima right behind her. After a minute, he didn’t hear an explosion like he was expecting, but he did feel the cackle of an EMP on the edges of his field. _Slag!_ He sped faster, not wanting to find out what had happened to Cliff the hard way. 

_I’m sorry, partner. I failed you again._

* * *

Optima quickly called into base, as the EMP cackled behind her. Obviously Shatterglass was intending on preserving the mine as much as possible, but even a weapon like that would damage them severely.

“Wrencha! Bridge us back! Use the arrival coordinates, now!”

The groundbridge spiraled to life, and the team entered it, just as the EMP hit a drill which had been tossed that way by their fighting. Something sparked on it, and the machine exploded, setting off a cluster of crystals which sent a large plume of blue smoke and flame in on Optima’s mud flaps. Crossing the event horizon, she saw Wrencha turn off the bridge, and threw herself forward into a transformation, pedes skidding just slightly as she stopped her momentum. A cloud of smoke dissipated as it rose to the top of the silo. 

“Cutting it a bit close, Optima,” Wrencha said. “How about Cliffstar?”

Optima hung her helm and shook it. She felt Wrencha’s EM field flare before she pulled it tight. 

“Dudes!” Optima looked down to see Rafael standing at the railing of the consoles. “Was that an explosion? Was there a fight? Did you kick major tailpipe?”

Arc’s EM field flashed darkly and he started moving towards Rafael. “Look-”

“Hey, Rafael!” Mikoto interrupted, pulling the boy away from the railing. “Why don’t we see where the ‘Bots hide their crudy magazines.”

“Seriously?” Rafael had an utterly disbelieving look, but let the girl lead him away. 

Optima turned back to Arc. “Arc, what did you see?”

Arc’s arms were tight at his side, his servos clenched. “Not Cliff. Not anymore. She was… butchered. Like those ‘Con experiments, back on Cybertron.” He suddenly swayed and collapsed, catching himself on the crate the children had hidden behind earlier. 

“:Arc, are you okay?:” Enerbee asked, coming to help him up. 

“I’m fine,” Arc said, pushing himself to sit on the crate, while Wrencha stepped up. “Just dizzy.”

Optima faintly heard the children talking amongst themselves. 

“Robots who get dizzy?” Rafael asked.

“Robots with emotions.” Jackson.

“Robots… who can die.” Mikoto, and her voice had a sense of finality to it. 

_You do not even_ _know._

Wrencha activated her scanner and ran it over Arc. It shifted from blue to red as it hovered over his servo. Wrencha carefully lifted his arm, revealing a splash of a purple substance on the back of his servo. “What is this?”

“Don’t know,” Arc said. “Cliff was covered in it. Leaking it. I think it was even glowing.”

Wrencha pulled a sample jar and slide out from her subspace and scraped off as much of the substance as possible. “Go take a decontamination bath, now.”

Enerbee took Arc’s other arm and guided him to the medbay. Wrencha followed, sample in servo. Optima was worried, though. The substance felt very familiar, and the Matrix was pulsing lightly in her chest.

“Um, Optima?” She turned around to see Mikoto standing there with her phone out. “I hate to bother you, but, no bars.” She turned it so Optima could see, indeed, there was no signal. 

“A security precaution. The silo walls isolate all radio signals, to prevent Decepticon detection.”

“Well, I’m going to need to go outside then, cause if I don’t call my host parent asap, I think the cops might be looking for me.”

 _Law enforcement?_ Optima leaned down closer to the children. “Have you broken the law?”

“Curfew,” Mikoto pointed to the phone’s chonometer. “It’s after ten pm, and I’m an exchange student, so even something as minor as a curfew pick up can affect my schooling.”

Rafael let out a sigh. “I better get home too, before Momma decides to ground me for a year.” He rolled his optics.

“And I need to get home before Mom does,” Jackson said. 

Optima frowned. “Earth customs. I hadn’t considered.” She thought to that afternoon, and she supposed the humans could even consider them collecting the children to be kidnapping, even if they did come willingly. “We will return you home, but we can not ignore the issue of your safety.” She turned to Bulka, who had remained in the common area, and Enerbee, who had returned from escorting Arc. “Enerbee, you will accompany Jackson home. Maintain covert surveillance, and take care that Juno does not realize you are there.”

Enerbee gave her a thumbs up. “:You got it, Optima!:”

“Bulka, you will watch over Rafael.”

The Wrecker nodded. “Curbside, got it.” 

“Sweet!” Rafael gave a fist pump. “Rocking home with the tough bot!”

“What about me, Optima?” Mikoto asked. 

Optima looked over to Wrencha, but didn’t suggest her. Their medic would likely much prefer a night of analyzing the substance over sitting outside a house all night. She was about to offer her own protection for the night, when Arc stepped out of the medbay. The Matrix pulsed, differently than with the substance, a softer, brighter one.

“Arc.” The mech looked up. “You will accompany Mikoto.”

Arc blinked, and looked from her to the girl and back. “Ooh,” he placed a servo on his helm, “still dizzy.”

“You’re fine,” Wrencha said without turning around. “Says your physician.”

The newly matched pair both sighed, but Optima trusted in the Matrix’s opinion. It said they would be good partners, so partners they would be.

* * *

About forty minutes later, Mikoto had successfully directed Arc to her host parent’s house. It wasn’t much, a single story ranch with basement and yard, but it was well kept, and had a neatly organized garage with plenty of room for Arc and another car if need be. The most notable things of said garage were an old couch along the back wall, with a waist-high speaker amp next to it, and a worktable to the left that was currently covered with paper mache balls of different sizes.

Once inside, Mikoto got off Arc and slid her bag over her head. She sighed, thinking of all the homework she’d need to complete the next day that she hadn’t even started on. _You're slacking on the Plan, Mikoto,_ a voice that sounded like her mother said in her head. Then she looked down at Arc, and realized how small her complaint was. 

“Hey, Arc.” She paused a moment to be sure she had his attention. “I just wanted to say, I’m really sorry for your loss.”

Arc shifted his front wheel, like he was looking directly at her. “What could you possibly know about loss?”

 _Well that was rude._ “Sorry, I’m just trying to be considerate.” She crossed her arms. “Humans have problems too.”

Arc transformed - and that was still a bit freaky - and glared down at her. “I don’t think having no social life counts.”

Mikoto narrowed her own eyes. “Hey, the social life thing is my choice. Look, I may not have lost a close friend or family, but I know others who have. I’m just trying to show you that I care!”

The argument was cut short by the sound of a car approaching, and both turned to see a sedan start to turn into the driveway. Arc transformed his hands into blasters, though he didn’t power them up yet. “‘Cons!”

“No!” Mikoto dropped her bag and ran in front of him. “Host parent! Hide!”

She ran out of the garage as her host parent Dr. Bill Fowler, stepped out of his car. "Hi, Mikoto. Did you just get in?"

"Uncle Bill!" Mikoto stopped in front of him. "Just in? No, no! I've been home for a while. I-uh, I have a surprise."

He raised a brow. "You do?" He looked behind her. "Oh, is that it?"

Mikoto turned around and saw, thankfully, that Arc had changed back to his motorcycle mode. "Uh, yeah! Yeah! I bought a motorcycle today.”

“Have you asked your parents about this?” he asked, walking in to looked Arc over. _Don’t do anything, please,_ Mikoto thought, but he remained still. “I don’t think they expected your allowance to go for something like this.”

“I’ve been saving up my KO paychecks,” Mikoto said, following Bill in. “He’s used and kinda abused, so the owner sold him to me for a low price.”

Bill’s brow raised again with a smile. “Him? I wasn’t expecting to have to beat the boys off yet.”

“Uncle Bill!” Mikoto started to rub the back of her head. “So, you’re not mad I got him? You’ll let me keep him?”

“Of course you can keep him.” Bill placed a hand on her shoulder. “You’ve already bought him, you’ve proven yourself to be very responsible, and you can’t keep riding Abigail’s old ten-speed everywhere. Just make sure to wear your helmet and protective clothing when you ride, and be careful. I don’t want to be called down to the ER for you.” He looked at Arc again. “And you have to let me take a spin sometime.”

Mikoto smiled. “Agreed, though I’m not so sure about that last one. He’s kinda temperamental.”

Bill patted her shoulder, then yawned. “Well, I’m headed in. Don’t stay up too late, even if your homework is nearly done.” He winked, and walked towards the door into the house. 

Mikoto picked up her bag, then looked at Arc. “Well, goodnight,” she said softly, then followed Bill inside. She hoped this wouldn’t all end in disaster.

* * *

It had been almost two joors since the Autobots were driven off from the mine. A stunt that had almost ended in disaster, when the EMP set off an explosion. If not for the fire suppression systems Shatterglass insisted on installing as the mine got larger, they would have lost all the energon, instead of a simple quarter of it. Even so, the loss of personnel from the Autobots attack was significant. They would need to pull in from at least two of the smaller mines to make up for it, as well as posting another full guard rotation in case the Autobot realized the mine was not entirely destroyed. 

All this Shatterglass had put together, preparing a full report for Megtrona. Her wings twitched as she thought of her master, even though she was already headed towards her. After the experiment with Cliffstar, Megtrona had retreated to the chamber she had stored the rest of the Dark Energon she had found, and it was quite a quantity as well. She apparently had not emerged at all since, and had barely acknowledged Audial when she brought her energon for evening refuel. It was not... uncharacteristic of their master to seek time alone to meditate, but that she ignored possibly the only being she considered a friend after such a long absence was… not right either.

Shatterglass entered the chamber, and looked up at her master. She was prowling around the Dark Energon like a pithound around an injured lillith. The only light in the room came from the red safety paths on the floor and the glow of the crystals, casting her plating with lavender light. She had not even cleaned up the evidence from her fight with Cliffstar. 

“My lady,” she announced herself as she approached, stopping at the end of the ramp up to Megtron’s position and bowing.

“Shatterglass,” Megtrona said, only sparing her a glance. “I presume you have a very good reason for disturbing me.”

“A report, of what happened in the mine,” Shatter said, straightening. “With the explosion set off by the EMP, it is likely we will not see further Autobot interference for some time.”

“And do you have any hard evidence of this fact? A body perhaps?” Megtrona asked. “Because if you think an explosion can get rid of _her_ , you haven’t been paying attention.” Her servos clenched into tight fists as she stopped in front of the crystals, her back to Shatterglass. “She is harder to eliminate than servo rust, and as gnawing as a scraplet. I will only be satisfied she’s dead when I hold her broken spark chamber in my servo.”

Shatterglass took a risk and a step forward. “Perhaps you should rest, my lady. You have had a long journey, and we know how… pervasive Dark Energon can be. Too much contact too soon might allow its properties to adversely affect you.”

Megtrona’s EM field, usually tightly furled, spread out, anger and irritation giving away to epiphany. “Or perhaps, Shatterglass, I have not allowed myself contact enough.” She reached out and ripped a shard of the Dark Energon, as Shatterglass processed what she intended.

“Lady Megtrona, no!” She moved forward. “Adding more to your systems- We don’t know what it will do!” She reached out a servo to try and stop this madness, or delay it enough for Audial to come, but she was too late. Megtrona pierced her chestplate with the shard, pushing in as it dissolved under her servo. 

Her master doubled over, then arched back up, her shoulders and helm thrown back in a roar, of pain, of defiance. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another chapter done, hooray! Hopefully the next one will be quickly brought out too (which of course all depends on my writing of AllSpark, but details!). So as you can see, some divergence going on here, and I hope you like the added scene of the kids at base. Hope you all enjoy!
> 
>  **Technical Notes**  
>  **Technical Notes:**  
>  Nanoklik - 1 Second  
> Klik - 1.2 Minutes  
> Breem - 8.3 Minutes  
> Cycle - 1 Hour  
> Joor - 6.5 Hours  
> Dium - 1 Day  
> Orn - 13 Days  
> Quartex - 6 Months  
> Groon - 1.71 Years  
> Vorn - 82 Years  
> Teravorn - 1024 Years


	3. Darkness Rising Pt 3

Mikoto had dreamed about robots fighting kaiju and saving the world, only for the earth to start to rumble and shake beneath her feet. And the rumble continued on even after her dream self fell over and she woke up. After a few bleary moments, she saw her clock read 7:55 am and recognized the sound as a motorcycle engine.

 _What idiot revs their engine this early on Saturday?_ She flipped her second pillow over her head to try and drown the sound out, only for her eyes to snap open a few seconds later. _No one on this block has a motorcycle. Except me._

She bolted for the garage, opening the door and whisper-shouting, "What do you think you're doing!?" She stepped in, closing the door behind her. "You're lucky Uncle Bill is such a heavy sleeper, else you'd be waking him up along with half the neighborhood."

"Don't care about them, I care about getting you up. It's go time."

Mikoto rubbed a hand over her eyes. "It's Saturday. Who gets up at eight am on a Saturday when they don't have to?"

"Don't you humans have a saying about getting up early?"

"Yeah, and one about the benefits of being second too." She sighed and ran a hand through her hair, knowing she wouldn't be able to fall back asleep now. Her fingers got slightly caught in her bedhead, and she frowned at her hair. "Give me a half hour to get ready, eat something, and leave a note for Uncle Bill and I'll be back."

"Be quick."

Mikoto took the entire half hour, just to spite Arc. Maybe not the best way to start a - guardianship? Partnership? - whatever this was, but she could be petty. She used that time to brush out her hair and restyle it, change into clean clothes, and eat a bowl of cereal.

When she came out, she had her bookbag, planning to use at least part of the day on her homework. She hit the garage button, put on her helmet - a slightly ugly pink flowered thing that obviously was meant for a ten-speed - and hopped on Arc.

"Alright, let's go."

Arc whipped around and rolled out of the garage, hardly waiting long enough for Mikoto to click the door closed before he took off down the street.

Just as they reached the open road outside of Jasper, Arc spoke for the first time since they left. "Hold tight, kid."

"Why- Aii!" Mikoto held tight as she could as Arc sped up and started running down the highway on his back wheel. "What's gotten into you?"

Arc dropped back to two wheels. "I thought you might enjoy the ride if you weren't being shot at. Unless you're too scared?"

Mikoto grinned. "Oh, I'm not scared of a couple wheelies and speeding. But stop it with the kid, my name is Mikoto."

"Too long, I like something fast." He was quiet for a moment. "How about 'Ko'?"

"You mean calling me by the part of my name that means 'kid'?"

"At least it's in your name, right?"

Mikoto considered it. "Alright. But only you can call me that, so don't spread it around."

"Wouldn't dream of it. So you ready?"

Mikoto grinned. " ** _Bring it!_** "

She whooped in delight as Arc sped up, blowing way past the speed limit in seconds.

* * *

Like usual, the Esquivel house's morning was chaos. Rafael was woken up by his brother Miguel's radio as he did a "morning workout", like lifting two pound weights really helped anything, and tried vainly to fall back asleep for ten minutes before he admitted defeat and got up.

He had to wait for the bathroom, as Carlita was in there and took forever to do her hair, so he spent the time texting Bulka, glad the Autobot had given him her comm info, which was basically a phone number.

[Me: I hate waiting on Carlita to get out of the bathroom in the morning. She doesn't need to spend an hour curling her hair. Especially when she's not even going out!]

[Bulka: Is there another washrack?]

[Me: No. Well, there's Momma and Pop's one, but only Maria, Tony, and Miguel get to use it, cause they're 'responsible'.]

[Bulka: You aren't considered responsible?]

[Me: 'Responsible' to them means I'm spending every summer and weekend working with Dad in the landscaping company. No. Thanks!]

[Bulka: That's not such a bad job? I was construction, back before the war.]

[Me: Was it the only thing anyone thought you'd be good for?]

[Bulka: It was.]

Rafael looked at the response in surprise. No way a cool robot like her could have been thought of like that. She's- she's a cool robot!

He looked up as the bathroom door opened and darted in the second Carlita walked out. He quickly showered, dressed, and styled his hair, before grabbing his bag and board from his room and running into the kitchen. The island held the family Saturday breakfast, already half demolished, with half his siblings and Pops sitting at the table while Momma finished frying up some donuts. He slipped past her and dropped his stuff next to a counter stool before reaching into the fridge for the milk, grabbing a glass from the cupboard to pour it in. When he had it, he quickly grabbed himself a portion of the egg bake and three egg and chorizo wraps, and sat on his stool. With practiced speed, he chowed down on his breakfast, and leapt up, dropping his dishes in the sink and grabbing his bag and board and a donut off the counter.

"I'm off," he said, heading towards the garage door.

"And where are you going, young man? You better not be tagging again," Momma asked. Rafael barely restrained himself from rolling his eyes.

"Momma, that's so freshman stuff. I'm just meeting up with some new friends, that's all."

"Who are these friends? You're not sneaking off for the Circuit, are you?"

"Momma!" _Even if I was going to the Circuit, I wouldn't tell you._ "I'm just meeting some friends. I'll be home before curfew, promise. Bye!" He sped out the house, grabbing a soda from the garage fridge before heading out to where Bulka was waiting just down the street.

"Good morning, Rafael," Bulka said as he climbed in, the Autobot symbol on her steering wheel blinking in time with her words.

"Morning," he grumbled. Leave it to Momma to ruin his mood. He tossed his skateboard and bag into her backseat, and slumped a bit in his seat.

"You okay?" Bulka asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Or he would be, once he let out some frustration. "Hey, we don't need to head right to the base, do we?"

"No. Not unless Optima orders us to. Did you have something in mind?" She somehow made the light blink suspiciously.

Rafael smiled. "Just follow my directions."

He guided Bulka to a rise not far outside of town, that held a steep incline. Miguel and Tony had stories (told away from Momma and Pops's ears) of daring or being dared by their friends to ride down with their bikes or four wheelers, but Rafael had never had the chance to do it himself. Now, this was the perfect opportunity.

He leaned forward in his seat with a grin as he counted down. "Ready, set…."

"Um, Rafael," Bulka interrupted. "I don't want to kill your fun, but I am supposed to be protecting you."

"From Decepticons. I doubt any of them can turn into rocks." He patted her door. "Besides, I'm strapped in tight inside ten tons of metal muscle, no offense. I'm protected. And besides, what's life without a little risk? Boring, that's what."

"Well, I suppose I can't argue with that." Bulka revved her engine once, then inched forward just enough to go over the edge of the rise and down the side.

Rafael's grin stretched to cover his face, even as he braced himself against the dashboard. "Whoo-oo-oo-oo! Ha-ha-ha!" When they reached the bottom and Bulka swerved to a stop, spinning slightly, Rafael sat back and pumped his fist in the air. "Hell yeah, that rocked! Let's go again."

Bulka immediately swung to go back up the rise. "You're right, Rafael, that was fun. And not a 'Con in sight, so I think we can swing a few more runs in."

Rafael thought he couldn't grin more. "I knew you were the cool bot!"

* * *

Jackson woke as he did every day, to his alarm playing "Reveille". On school days, it went off at six o'clock, but on weekends it went off at eight. He sat up and rubbed his eyes, then put his glasses on and got ready for his day. When he came into the kitchen, he found his mom sitting at the kitchen table with a frown on her face as she read over a file, her breakfast cooling next to her and coffee mug almost empty. She looked up as he came in and gave him a tired smile.

"Morning, Jack-Attack," she said.

"Morning, Mom," he said back, going to the coffee pot and bringing it and the creamer to the table. "Work stuff?" he asked as he refilled her mug.

"Yeah. I was faxed this late last night, it's urgent business. I'm probably gonna have to go into the office today." She sighed and muttered under her breath, something Jackson could only catch a couple words of, like "Patroniza Prime", and "giant tin cans". "Think you'll be okay on your own today?"

"Mo-om. I'm twelve, not seven," he said, serving himself some pancakes and sausage. "I was planning on hanging out with some kids from school anyway."

"Really? Who?"

"One is a girl from my Trig class, the other is the brother of a girl I went to elementary with. We're starting a science fiction club."

"A science fiction club?" Mom raised a brow. "Like a book club?"

"A bit more of a movie/game one, but it's a mixed bag. We're kinda doing a test run today, but if it works, we're gonna try and meet after school."

"Well, I hope you have fun, sweetie." Her watch beeped and she frowned at it before diving into her breakfast. She quickly finished it, drained her coffee, and grabbed the file. She dropped a kiss onto his head as she went by. "I'll give a call as soon as I know when I'll be home, and maybe we can have a movie night. We probably got some sci-fi ones we can watch together, ideas for your club."

Jackson smiled up at her. "I'd like that, Mom. Love you."

"Love you too, Jackson." She ruffled his hair, then went out the door, her heels clicking on the hardwood and linoleum.

Jackson took his time eating, though not too much, since he wanted to meet with Enerbee as soon as possible. He smiled at the thought of the Autobot. They had talked pretty much the whole way home, and even when he came inside, they were texting until he went to bed. When he was finished, he cleared away the breakfast dishes, grabbed his backpack from his room, and locked the front door before running down the street to where Enerbee was parked.

":Hey, Jackson,:" she said, opening her door for him.

"Hey, Enerbee. How was your night?" He climbed in and buckled up, placing his bag at his feet.

":It was good, quiet. Bulka and Arc reported the same.:" She pulled away from the curb and down the street. ":We don't need to head right to base, so anywhere you want to go?:"

Jackson thought, and shook his head. "No where in particular. My red RC car is in the middle of a motor build for a project, and I haven't told Mom about my yellow one getting crushed, so I don't have the money for a new one yet."

":Sorry about that again,:" Enerbee sounded so sheepish Jackson couldn't help running a comforting hand on her door.

"It's okay. I didn't spend a lot on it yet, I was gonna wait until Christmas to get my first big upgrade for it." He adjusted his glasses. "Do you like video games?"

":Video games? Oh yeah! We can't play the way most humans do, but we can play some online games on our HUDs. Cliffstar would-" she paused, her engine hitching a little "- she would get in such trouble from Wrencha if she found her playing one while she was trying to give her an exam, or explain something to the whole team.:"

"Sounds like she was fun," Jackson said, resuming the comforting rub. "You must miss her a lot."

":It still doesn't feel real, you know? Three days ago, we were joking around and planning to check out Yosemite together when we got a break from energon scouting.:" She turned down the road to head out of town.

"I understand that. A couple years ago, I spent Christmas with my dad's family, and Grandpa Paxton had a heart attack in his sleep the day after Christmas. None of us were prepared for it, and it hurt a lot." Jackson smiled towards Enerbee's steering wheel. "I'm here if you ever want to talk about it."

":Thanks, Jackson. You're too sweet.:" Her voice took a light teasing tone, and Jackson couldn't help giggling. ":Well, let's get away from morose stuff. You were saying about video games?:"

"Well, I have a couple wireless controllers, so I figured if there was a way we could play…."

Enerbee let out a happy trill that didn't seem to express more than joy and a bit of laughter. She pulled off the road and behind a set of boulders before engaging her parking brake. The screen on her dashboard flashed from a blank screen with the Autobot symbol to a search bar. ":Any preferences?:

"Racing games? I like First to the Grand Prix."

":Sounds perfect!:" She quickly brought the game up and instructed Jackson on how to sync his controller to the game. Once they were ready, they started up the race, Jackson using his controller and Enerbee her own steering wheel.

They were on the last lap of the race, and it was coming up close, with Jackson doing his best to slip past Enerbee and into the lead. However, just when he was about to, Enerbee's racer slid right into his, sending the yellow racecar into a spin and off the game track, just when Enerbee's red one sped across the finish line.

"Awww!" Jackson said, rocking back in his seat.

":Oh yeah! Who's the femme?!:" Enerbee cheered, her steering wheel spinning in celebration.

"No fair, Enerbee. You've been driving a lot longer than me." Jackson wasn't really upset, and the laugh in his voice betrayed that.

":You're the one who suggested we play,:" she replied cheekily. The "Play again?" screen came up, a box hovering around "Yes". ":Rematch?:"

"Oh yeah! You're going down this time!" Jackson got his game face on as they prepared for another race.

* * *

Optima had not rested well, the failed mission for Cliffstar, the safety of the children, and the mystery of the strange purple substance Arc had brought back all weighing on her. She also knew it was weighing on Wrencha, and that was why when she went to speak with her on the status of her analysis, she brought an energon cube for the medic. She often forgot to refuel when in the middle of a project.

As she approached the medbay, however, she heard loud noises and Wrencha yelling. Optima broke into a run, and entered just in time to see a drone of some kind launch itself towards Wrencha. She drew her blaster and shot the thing, knocking it to the ground. As it tried to get up again, she rushed forward and crushed it underpede.

"And stay broken!" Wrencha said, glaring at the drone, then looking up to Optima. "Thank you, Optima."

"What happened, Wrencha?" Optima asked, passing Wrencha the cube.

"I'm unsure. Best I can assume, some of the goo must have dripped off the slide I was carrying a sample on. _That_ was the remains of the tool Bulka broke last night." She drained the cube and gestured Optima over to where she was recording her results. "The base structure of this is extraordinary. Both unlike anything I've seen, yet also very familiar. The closest I can compare it to is congealed processed energon, like if someone was trying to make energon goodies by draining their lines." She shuddered at the thought.

Optima looked at the scans and images, and felt the Matrix thrum as she realized what it was. It made sense, the color, the strange structure, the way it brought both the equipment to life.

She leaned back from it. "I believe I know what it is. Dark Energon."

"What?" Wrencha asked. "No, it can't be. Dark Energon hasn't been seen since the Fall of Cybertron."

"Yet I know not what else it can be," Optima said, turning back to the drone. She scooped it up and carried it to a shelf, pulling out a small pod. She placed the drone inside and sealed it. "Can you think of any other substance that turns machines feral and brings back the dead?"

"But here? On Earth?" Wrencha insisted. "Where would Shatterglass have found it?"

"Not Shatterglass." Optima placed the pod back on the shelf and turned around. "Megtrona."

Wrencha invented - sharp, but quiet - and folded her arms across her chestplates. "You really think she's back."

"I know she's back." Optima didn't elaborate on how she knew. Not the pulses the Matrix gave, or the pang in her spark that came when the _Nemesis_ came in sight overhead. These were things Wrencha knew, and while she might not believe fully in them, she trusted them.

"And would only bring Dark Energon if she wanted to build an undead army." Wrencha snorted. "She'll either need to break a lot of toaster ovens, or hope Shatterglass didn't dismantle all the vehicons who have died since they arrived here. Where else would she find enough Cybertronian dead?"

"Where indeed," Optima mused, but she had an idea. Before she could share it however, the pair heard the sound of engines coming down the tunnel. Arc, Bulka, Enerbee, and their charges came in, the children exiting - or climbing off - their guardians with big smiles and chattering voices as the 'Bots transformed.

Bulka made an odd expression as she stood, and opened her cargo hold, extracting a backpack and a skateboard.

"Whoops," Rafael said, taking the items. "Left those in the backseat. Sorry."

"Autobots, prepare to-"

Optima cut herself off. A few days ago, she would have brought the whole team along, but now, she couldn't leave their young charges alone in the base.

"Roll out?" Arc asked.

"Remain here," Optima said. She sent Wrencha a silent ping, and a string of coordinates. Wrencha nodded and went to the groundbridge controls. "Wrencha and I are continuing investigation of the purple substance found on Cliffstar's body. Arc, we will likely be outside of communication range for some time, so I am putting you in charge."

"Why the dude bot?" Rafael asked, looking up at Bulka. "You're the biggest, you should be in charge."

"Chain of command. Arc's higher up than me," Bulka explained.

Arc was not happy about this order, however, and let it show in his EM field. "Optima, with all due respect, guard duty is one thing, babysitting is another. Besides, Wrencha hasn't seen combat since Cybertron."

A bolt came flying at Arc's helm, which only his battle instincts allowed him to avoid, so it bounced off Enerbee's chassis before she caught it. "My pistons may be rusty, but my hearing is as good as ever!" The medic called, not looking from putting the coordinates in.

"For now, it is simply reconnaissance," Optima tried to reassure Arc.

"Then why do I hear an edge in your voice?"

Optima internally sighed. Arc was intuitive, but impulsive. She would have to answer carefully. "I have suspicions as to what Megatrona's next move will be, but they are only suspicions. Until they are confirmed, we can not make a move, and we can not leave our new allies unprotected. That important task I have left to you and the others." She turned to Wrencha. "Wrencha, bridge us out."

Wrencha pulled the lever, and the pair headed into the groundbridge. As they crossed the event horizon, Optima could only hope her suspicions were wrong.

* * *

Megtrona had finally stopped screaming, and now stood, hunched just slightly forward while venting deeply. Shatterglass had retreated a few steps during the infusion, but now she approached again, the barest hint of concern in her EM field.

"Master? Lady Megtrona?" She reached out a servo towards her lady's shoulder, only to jerk it back when the warlord straightened.

"Unicron's Blood flows through my veins again, as it was teravorn ago." Megtrona's voice was almost hushed, softer in a way Shatterglass had only heard once before. "But this time, it's different. This time, I can hear his very thoughts. His knowledge filling my processor." She reached into the Dark Energon cluster and ripped off a large shard. "I know now what I must do."

Shatterglass smothered the worry that tried to spring up, and simply offered a half-bow as Megtrona turned. "And what can I do to assist you, master?"

"Stop groveling!" she snapped. "And await my command." Megtrona left the room in a stalk, Shatterglass only casting one more suspicious look at the Dark Energon before following.

The two parted ways shortly after, and it was from the bridge that Shatterglass watched Megtrona fly away, destination unknown to anyone but herself. She felt Audial come up behind her, and waited just a moment before she spoke.

"We both remember what happened the last time our lady was infused with Dark Energon. But I fear, in conjunction with her time among the stars, its influence is clouding her judgement. Increase global surveillance."

She turned around, and Audial played her an audio clip of their master. " _Stop groveling! And await my command._ "

"I'm not deaf!" Shatterglass said. "But, so long as Optima Prime lives and the Autobots resist us, it is only our duty to monitor the current situation, that we might ensure her enemy's destruction."

Audial tilted her helm, just the slightest bit to the left, then nodded. Shatterglass smiled, glad to have made Audial see her side of the matter.

* * *

Mikoto watched Optima and Wrencha leave with some worry. Optima said it had something to do with Megtrona. That meant the warlord - warlady? What was the word for that? - was here, on Earth. The burning red optics they'd been shown even now gave her chills down her back.

 _They'll be fine,_ she told herself. _They've done this kind of thing loads of times, and she said it was only recon. They'll be fine._

"So, chief," she looked up at Arc. "What's on the activities' list?"

Arc looked down at her and Jackson, as Rafael ran off to somewhere, then immediately away, walking towards the entrance tunnel. "I'm going on patrol."

"Optima said to stay here," Bulka said.

"When you're in charge, you call the shots," Arc said. "'Bee, with me!" Enerbee looked at Jackson, then buzzed sadly and followed Arc. Arc patted Bulka's arm. "Bulka, you're in charge." He and Enerbee then quickly transformed and took off down the tunnel.

Mikoto looked to Bulka, who sighed and turned back to the kids. "So, what's on the activities' list?"

Any answer Mikoto had was interrupted by a loud "WHOO!" that sounded like it came from over their heads. She, Jackson, and Bulka looked up to see Rafael jump onto the railing of the mezzanine staircase with his skateboard and rail grind all the way down, making a perfect turn when he landed.

"That was awesome!" He cheered, getting off the board and picking it up. "I'm gonna go again."

"No you're not!" Bulka knelt down, one arm blocking Rafael's access to the stairs. "Do you know how dangerous that was!? You could have broken a strut, or cracked your helm open. You aren't even wearing a helmet!"

Rafael rolled his eyes. "God, you sound like my mom. I thought you were the cool bot."

"There's nothing cool about recklessly putting yourself in danger," Bulka said, right before the proximity alert sensor went off and they all looked up.

"There doesn't happen to be a flying 'Bot who uses the landing pad, right?" Mikoto asked, not really believing it.

"It's Juno," Bulka confirmed, standing up. "All of you, hide!"

The three quickly hid themselves behind Bulka's leg, there not really being anywhere else to go quickly. And just in time, as the elevator doors opened and Mikoto could hear Juno yell out. "PRIME!"

"Uh, she's not here, Agent Darby," Bulka said. "No one's here. Except me."

"Well then where is she?" Juno asked. "No, wait, let me guess. She's out causing more messes I'll have to clean up. If she thinks causing a mag 7 earthquake in Colorado is her idea of handling the 'Cons 'under the radar', she has another thing coming!" Bulka shifted to the side slightly, probably to keep them from sight, but it jostled them around that Mikoto bumped into Rafael's arm - the one holding his skateboard. In a panic, she tried to grab it, as Rafael did the same. "Do you know how many people felt that quake? How many nutjobs had to be convinced that Chyanne Mountain wasn't sending-"

She was cut off as Rafael and Mikoto lost their fumbling, and the skateboard clattered to the floor, rolling out from behind Bulka and into the light. "Since when do you 'Bots have a skateboard?"

Mikoto looked to Jackson and Rafael, and they shared the grimace she knew was on her face. But, they didn't really have a choice now, so the three stepped out of Bulka's shadow and into view of the agent on the mezzanine. Mikoto frowned a bit as she noticed Rafael push Jackson in front of him.

"Hello," she called up.

"How's it going?" Rafael said.

"Hi, Mom," Jackson said, giving a very nervous wave.

"Jackson!" Juno - who Mikoto noted looked a great deal like her son - immediately ran down the stairs, hugging Jackson when she reached him, then kneeling and grabbing him by the shoulders. "What are you doing here? Are you alright? Have they hurt you?" She started looking him over, even tilting his head back and to the sides.

"Mom, I'm fine, I'm fine," Jackson said, his cheeks pinking a little. Mikoto didn't blame him. She didn't know any boy who wanted to be coddled like that in front of their friends.

Apparently satisfied with her examination, Juno stood and turned her attention to Bulka. "You 'Bots have really gone off book this time. Contact with civilians is forbidden, and I specifically ordered you to stay the hell away from my son!"

"Mom, it's not their fault," Jackson defended. "There was a Decepticon attack, and-"

"What!?" Juno's eyes widened as realization hit her. "The chase two days ago. You were in that." She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and grabbed Jackson's hand. "That's it. I'm taking you with me." She started pulling him towards the stairs.

"You can't take them!" Bulka said.

"Yes I can, and I will. For their protection."

Bulka stomped a foot, and the ground wobbled, separating Juno and Jackson. Bulka knelt and placed a hand between her and Jackson, Mikoto and Rafael on his side. "We're protecting them. Optima ordered it."

Mikoto couldn't see Juno anymore, but she was sure she could feel the glare the agent was sending Bulka's way. "Well since she's not here, maybe you can be the one to explain this situation to the Pentagon." A pause, then a yell. "Jackson!"

Mikoto looked to Jackson, who opened his hand to reveal a cell phone, which he tucked into his pocket. "Sorry, Mom," he said, a bit nervously.

"I am going to kill your father for teaching you that trick." A click of heels across the floor, and Bulka lifted her hand.

"Don't use that phone, it's-" Bulka pressed her finger into the body of a wall phone Mikoto had not noticed before now, leaving Juno holding the receiver in her hand. "Out of order."

This time, Mikoto could see the glare, and was certain if looks could kill, Bulka would be a pile of rust. "This is not over, Big Girl! Not by a long shot!" She turned to Mikoto and the boys. "You three are to stay right here until I get back. Do not let the 'Bots take you anywhere." She looked specifically at Jackson. "And after that, we are going to have a long talk."

Jackson immediately snapped to attention and saluted. "Yes, ma'am."

Mikoto and Rafael quickly followed suit. "Yes, ma'am."

Juno nodded, then stalked up the stairs to the elevator. The doors closed and then they heard the beeps of it heading back up to the roof. Only when the last of them sounded, did the kids relax from their poses. Overhead, Bulka sighed, and walked across the atrium.

"You okay, Jackson?" Mikoto asked.

Jackson nodded. "Yeah, I'm fine. Don't worry, Mom's not gonna beat me up or anything. I might just have extra chores, or to do exercises."

"Lucky you," Rafael said, heading over to where his skateboard had rolled off to. "If that had been my mom, I'd already be black and blue from her slipper."

Mikoto smiled slightly at the image. "My mom would probably congratulate me on getting in on the ground floor with a whole new species of potential business partners. And probably try to marry me off to one of them." Now that was a interesting plan, she half-wished she could introduce her to the 'Bots, just to see if it'd be true.

"You and Arc would make a cute couple," Rafael said, picking up his board. "I can see it now, 'Wedding of the Century; the first ever interstellar marriage'. You'd probably get your own TV show about that."

Mikoto snorted. "Oh yes, and the paparazzi would flip at any picture of us riding together."

"You'd have to get a big house," Jackson said, smiling a little. "Maybe have to knock out the second story so he can walk around. I wonder if you could have babies."

Mikoto nearly choked. "I thought you were too young to have the Talk."

He gave her a pointed look. "I'm twelve and three-quarters, Mom gave me the Talk months ago."

"Glad I avoided that." Rafael came back for his backpack. "I just hung around the door when Dad told Miguel and then bolted whenever he tried to tell me."

"And have you ever needed to use it?" Mikoto asked.

"Totally!" Rafael said with a grin.

"What's the 'Talk'?" Bulka asked, having walked back over.

Mikoto and the boys froze, looked at each other, then she grabbed them and pulled them up the stairs. "Oh, hey, we should get started on our homework, we don't want to get a bad grade, right?"

"Nerd!" Rafael said, as Bulka laughed at the three of them.

"Don't worry, I already know. You humans and us cybertronians aren't that different, yah know."

And now Mikoto really needed to start her homework, cause she did not want the mental image of robots having sex.

* * *

On the far side of the world from the base, Optima led Wrencha down a deep canyon. Above them, the sky they could see was grey and gloomy, like it would rain soon, and with the rock walls the same color, it was almost enough to remind her of the tunnels under Cybertron's surface. She only hoped she would not see a devilish purple glow here as well.

"Optima, why are we here?" Wrencha asked. "What do we hope to find in such a remote area?" 

"The site of the largest cybertronian battle in this system cluster."

"On Earth?" Wrencha's voice expressed her disbelief.

Optima looked down at her medic. "Do you remember the last mission of the _Nightbird_?"

Wrencha scoffed. "Of course I do, I had to patch up a third of the crew myself, but what-"

"Indulge me."

A sigh. "The _Nightbird_ was one of our energon store ships, tasked with finding planets to hide energon on. Their last mission was successful in depositing the energon on an organic world, but they encountered a Decepticon ship and shot it down. The surviving 'Cons gathered together and retaliated with a prototype weapon that led to a massacre. Only the sacrifice of a very brave Autobot seeker allowed the escape of the Autobots, the destruction of the prototype, and the defeat of the Decepticons." Wrencha's optics widened. "You mean that world was Earth!?"

"Indeed. And I fear that Megtrona knows this as well."

"Then perhaps it'd be wise to move a bit faster." Wrencha transformed into her alt mode.

"Agreed." Optima followed suit and the two sped down the canyon.

* * *

Mikoto and the boys did manage to get started on their homework, but not long after, a loud alarm sounded in the base, making them cover their ears.

"What is that?" Rafael asked, as Bulka went to the console.

"It's an SOS, from Juno!" she said.

"Can you trace it?" Jackson asked, racing to the railing, Mikoto and Rafael not far behind.

Bulka's servos hovered over the console, but she very clearly had no idea what to hit. Then, as suddenly as it started, the alarm stopped. "Location scan incomplete."

"No!" Jackson's hands gripped the railing.

"What would she SOS about?" Rafael asked.

"She probably just clipped a cliffside and needed to call her boss for help," Bulka suggested, but even that sounded fake.

"What if that's not it? What if the Decepticons got her?" Jackson's grip tightened, and when Mikoto placed a hand on his shoulder, he immediately turned to hug her around the waist. She thought her shirt was starting to get damp, but she didn't mind.

"We have to find her," Mikoto said.

"Yeah," Rafael said. "She knows where the base is, and she's tough, but if any of the 'Cons are half as scary as Megtrona, she'll totally squeal!"

"But the scan's incomplete. We have no way to track her," Bulka said.

Jackson pulled himself away from Mikoto, wiping his sleeve across his face. "Maybe we do." He ran to his laptop, pulling it out and headed to the human-sized console, hooking it up like he'd done the night before. "A few years ago, the government started to microchip their agents, like owners do with pets. Mom was complaining about feeling like a prized poodle for a week afterwards." He smiled slightly as he bent over the keyboard. "If I can hack into the mainframe, I can pinpoint Mom's coordinates."

"Why can't you just use her access codes?" Rafael asked. "I mean, you gotta know those right?"

Jackson shook his head. "They only work on certain computers, and they change every three months. Plus, it'd be suspicious to use her codes to track her own coordinates. Luckily, we got a back door through the 'Bots."

"Do you think you can find her?" Mikoto asked.

"I know I can. I have to." Mikoto could see a steely glint of determination in his eyes as he focused on the laptop. A glint that honestly made her believe he could do it.

* * *

Shatterglass stood waiting in one of the brig's cells. Not the one she'd kept Cliffstar in - that one still needed cleaned. But it was next door, and had the appropriate restraints to hold a human prisoner. When Audial picked up the transmission of a human having just left the Autobot base, it was only logical to send someone to retrieve them. That Audial had dispatched Buzzsaw herself to do so meant she had seen the same reasoning.

She had just finished inspecting the chains that hung from the ceiling when the door opened and the heavy steps of a vehicon sounded behind her. Of course Audial would hand the human off. She folded her servos behind her back, waiting until she heard the sound of the human being dropped to the ground before speaking.

"Welcome, Agent Darby." She turned slightly to get a look at the prisoner. They were apparently a femme of the species, black hair, blue optics, wearing black and white clothes and - ugh, she had lost her pede coverings at some point. At least the odd pede-digits were contained by a transparent covering, but it was still rather disgusting.

Agent Darby rose to a kneeling position and dusted herself off. "You treat all your guests this nice?"

"Any friend of Autobots." Shatterglass turned to fully face the human.

"Autobot?" She put on a mockingly thoughtful face. "That one of those Japanese toys that's coming out for Christmas? Or was that the name of the car wash in Frenso during basic training?"

So, she wasn't going to tell all to try and save her life. Shatterglass felt a touch of respect for the human, even as she smiled wickedly. "Oh so that is how you wish to play. Apparently no one has told you how I have no appreciation for human humor." She looked to the vehicon and waved a servo at the chains. "Make our guest comfortable."

The vehicon nodded and grabbed Agent Darby before she could protest. Shatterglass went over to the side of the room, looking over the energon prod laying there. This would be fun.

* * *

It took a half hour before Jackson managed to narrow down the coordinates. While the others stood around and worried, Rafael rolled around the ground floor of the base with his skateboard. Occasionally, he did a kick flip or a 360 to keep it interesting, but mostly just coasting.

Finally, Jackson called out, making Rafael stop in his tracks. "I got it! Latitude thirty-nine point five, longitude negative one-hundred-and-sixteen point nine."

Bulka input the coordinates into the groundbridge controls. "That's not far from here," Bulka commented. "Must have stayed in the area after we blew the mine yesterday." She pulled down the lever and the groundbridge spun to life. "Okay, you kids wait here."

"What?" Rafael asked, turning to her. "Come on, don't make us miss the action again!"

Bulka ignored him - typical - and was already turning to the bridge. "Mikoto, you're in charge!" she called back as she ran over the event horizon.

Well, Rafael wasn't going to take that sitting down, so he pushed off hard with his board and aimed himself right for the groundbridge.

Inside, he almost fell off the board, and the sensation felt like his bones were vibrating. It was amazing, and even more so when he rode out the other side and found he was a good six feet in the air. He knelt and stuck the landing, looking around.

They were in some desert valley, framed by cliffs and filled with scattered boulders and a few purple robots - Decepticons. And nestled between the cliffs at a narrowing of the valley was an absolutely humongous space ship. It was spiky and dark grey, and somehow this thing had been hiding from humanity for a couple years? Incredible.

He spotted Bulka hiding behind a boulder, and ran to a smaller one close to her, sliding his board into the strap on his back. "Alright," he said when he got in position. "What's the plan?"

Bulka looked shocked she was there. "Rafael!" she whisper-shouted, holding a finger in front of her face - oh, she was shushing him.

Rafael was going to protest that, then he heard heavy footsteps and a loud whining sound. He looked up, and a 'Con was standing over him, a gun or blaster of some kind on the end of its arm aimed right at him, and probably charging up.

"Oh shit." He scrambled to jump over the boulder and out of the way. He heard the shot go off and saw some pieces of rock fly past him. He ran for another piece of cover when he heard a crash behind him and turned to see Bulka fighting with the 'Con. They exchanged punches and swipes before Bulka managed to knock the 'Con down and tried to pin them.

Rafael spotted a large rock, easily the size of his head, and picked it off the ground, heading towards the 'Con's head. After all, he couldn't do nothing. "Hold 'em still!" he yelled, and slammed the rock down as hard as he could. It barely even scratched the paint, and then Rafael found himself lifted into the air and deposited inside a cluster of rocks.

He turned around and saw Bulka and the 'Con on their feet again, pushing against each other's hands. "Rafael, look away!"

"But-"

"Turn your head away!" Bulka released the 'Con's hand, only to punch their chest and pull back hard, yanking out a mass of sparking wires and cables.

Rafael's eyes widened and his jaw dropped. "Whoa!" His guardian was strong enough to rip a 'Con's guts out. That was awesome!

Bulka dropped the dead 'Con and knelt down, holding her hand to Rafael. "Are you okay? Why on Earth did you follow me?"

"I'm fine." Rafael climbed into her hand and let himself be raised up. "And I wanted to see the action. It's not fair that the nerds back at base got a chance to and I haven't."

"This isn't about fair, Rafael, this is war. You could have gotten hurt!" She shook her helm. "We'll talk about this back at base." She shifted in their cover, so they could see the Decepticon ship. "I'm making a call. Arc, Enerbee, do you read?" She was quiet for a moment, and Rafael guessed she got through when she said, "We have a situation." Another pause. "I'm at the _Nemesis_ , with Rafael. At the _Nemesis_. Juno showed up, found out about the kids, and after she left we got an SOS from her. We tracked her down, but Rafael followed me. I need backup ASAP." Another pause, then a nod. "Over and out."

"So, we're just waiting?" Rafael asked.

"Yes, we are." Bulka shifted slightly, resting more against the boulder. "But what possessed you to just run through the groundbridge like that? Do you have any idea how dangerous that is?"

Rafael rolled his eyes. "What happened to waiting 'til we get back to base?"

"We have time now." Bulka sighed. "Rafael, I'm your guardian. I'm to be protecting you."

"And you did. Look, not a scratch." He held his arms out, and even turned around best he could in her hand. "Come on, you can't expect me to just wait back in base, not seeing anything that you're facing? A slideshow is one thing, experience is another."

"An experience none of us want you to have. Trust me, this is not some big thrill." Bulka looked up. "What's taking Arc and Enerbee so long?"

Rafael almost rolled his eyes at the blatant change of topic. "Dude, the 'Cons could be putting the clamps on Juno right now. Let's just storm the joint!"

Before Bulka could respond, a groundbridge spun to life ahead of them. "They're here," she said.

Except instead of seeing the two 'Bots leave the groundbridge, it was Mikoto and Jackson, who both looked a little woozy as they walked away from the groundbridge.

"Can't they hang out with their own bots?" Rafael asked, crossing his arms.

"This isn't one-on-one time!" Bulka said.

"You there!" a voice called, and Rafael realized what it was. The groundbridge had dropped Mikoto and Jackson into the open, right in view of the _Nemesis_.

"Shit!" he said, as Bulka said "Scrap!"

* * *

Shatterglass prowled around Juno, now hanging by the chains wrapped around her arms. She'd made a couple circuits after she dismissed the vehicon to stand guard outside, but only now did she speak.

"Agent Darby, I have one single request that would save your family the pain of grieving for you." She extended a digit and used the tip to tilt the human's helm back. "Tell me the location of the Autobot base."

"Of course," Agent Darby said, tilting her helm away from the digit. "But first I have my own question."

"Go on."

"Is there a manager I can speak to? The customer service here is terrible." She had the audacity to smirk at her.

Shatterglass growled, but smiled. "How bad for you. I am the manager." She pulled her other servo out from behind her back, revealing the energon prod to the human. She tapped it in her servo once. "Now I will ask nicely one last time. Where is the location of the Autobot base?"

Agent Darby held her helm up defiantly. "I'll tell you, after you eat my sand-crusted honeymoon nightgown!"

Shatterglass glared and activated the prod. She touched the active end to Agent Darby's stomach and was awarded with a loud scream that echoed in the room.

"As I suspected. Energon and human nervous systems do not mix." She pulled the prod back, and the scream died.

* * *

Optima led Wrencha around one last bend before she transformed back to root mode. She had expected the battlefield to have been buried, but time and weather seemed to have washed away the soil and rock, and so the bodies of the fallen were sticking half out of the ground.

"For once, Optima, I had hoped you'd be wrong," Wrencha said.

"I as well."

Before she could say more, her spark panged and she looked up as the sound of a jet came from overhead. A familiar sleek and silver shape swooped and transformed, Megtrona landing on the top of one of the cliff spires.

"Prime!" she turned and called out, a growling undertone audible even from so far away. She looked like she had just been in a fight, which was not unlikely with her habits, Optima recalled. "I was expecting you, however much I wished you'd disappoint me. And I see you brought your laphound with you. I thought she'd be rusting in the scrapyard by now."

"Watch it, Megtrona," Wrencha muttered, servos flexing at her side. "This laphound knows how to bite."

Optima stepped forward. "I know why you're here, Megtrona!"

"I'm not surprised. You always worked your processor too hard, and you've been foiling me for a long time." She pulled something from her subspace, something glowing a bright, devilish purple, and the Matrix pulsed. "A time which is about to end!"

Megtrona threw the Dark Energon down into the graveyard, with enough force it embedded almost halfway into the ground. It quickly disappeared below the surface, and a moment later, the same surface cracked apart, purple light spewing out as it covered the entire graveyard. Optima could hardly pull her optics away from Megtrona, whose chestplates began to glow with the same light. _She's done it again. Sister, why have you done it?_

"Rise my army!" Megtrona roared, and the ground split apart as the cybertronian dead rose up from their graves. Paint stripped away, optics, biolights, and even fuel lines where plating was broken away glowed purple, no faction symbols to be seen. Some carried broken weapons, others empty handed. All, however, were hissing and growling from vocalizers that shouldn't even make static.

Wrencha retreated a step. "By the AllSpark, Primus, and Thirteen."

"Behold!" Megtrona cried. "The power of Dark Energon! Destroy them!"

Optima could only draw her blasters as the fallen cybertronians charged.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another chapter complete. Hope ya'll enjoy this one. Yes, I skipped over the scene of Juno being kidnapped, but honestly, there wasn't much there different from canon except a couple lines of dialogue and the only thing I could think to make it interesting was an inner monologue for Juno about how she came to work with the 'Bots and it wasn't worth that effort. But in exchange, we have our first POVs for Rafael and Jackson, with some glimpses into their home life. I'm not going to say every character will get a POV, but yes, I will be expanding them out beyond the four "main characters" of Mikoto, Optima, Arc and Shatterglass (in fact, Arc doesn't have a POV in this chapter).
> 
>  **Japanese Translations:**  
>  Motte koi! - Come on!
> 
>  **Technical Notes:**  
>  Teravorn - approximately 1000 years


	4. Darkness Rising Pt 4

Rafael barely had a moment to register the 'Cons opening fire or the fact that Bulka was moving before he found himself tumbled about, surrounded by shifting metal, and landing in her backseat. He remained flat on his back as Bulka pulled to a stop and opened her door.

"Get in! Now!" she said, and a moment later, Mikoto and Jackson jumped in the front seat, the door closing behind them as they drove off, swerving a few times.

" ** _Arigato_** , Bulka," Mikoto said.

"Yeah, thanks," Jackson echoed.

"What are you doing here!?" Bulka asked.

"Rafael followed you through the groundbridge," Mikoto said. "Have you seen him?"

 _Could I get a better entrance?_ Rafael sat up with a grin. "What's he look like?" He grinned more when he saw Mikoto actually jump, then regretted it a bit when she reached back and smacked his head.

"You _**baka**_! You went right into a battlefield!"

"Hey, it wasn't one before you showed up," Rafael defended. "We were waiting on Arc and Enerbee, and got you guys instead."

Any further argument was stopped by Bulka pulling up behind a big boulder and opening her passenger side doors, front and back. "Everybody out!" she ordered.

Mikoto shot Rafael a glare, one that said "we'll be talking about this later." Ugh, he got enough of that glare from his momma, he didn't need to from Ms. Goodie Two-Shoes. So, instead of getting out, he just slid off the seat to the floor again, and that apparently worked, cause Bulka closed her doors and took off.

Rafael quickly found this was not his greatest idea, cause he found himself thrown back against the seats as Bulka sped up, then he slid and hit his head against her door as she made a sharp turn. He closed his eyes and bit his lip to keep from yelping and reached his arms up to cover his head while pulling his legs up.

And good thing he did, cause suddenly, everything around him shifted, and he's certain his foot would have gotten caught in something if he hadn't curled up. He was weightless for a moment, then gravity came back, and he hit floorboard, but he wasn't boxed in by seats anymore.

He opened his eyes to find himself in a metal box, except it was not rectangular. And then as he started to get his bearings, the room started to rock hard, back and forth, and he could just hear loud crashes outside.

 _Is this Bulka's chest compartment?_ He wondered, then he found himself too busy trying to brace himself against the rocking to think anymore. It didn't really work, so he curled up again and let himself roll with the rocking, even as it made his stomach churn similar to the time he rode a rollercoaster after eating two hot dogs and a slushie. Outside, he could hear crashes and blaster fire, so he figured Bulka was fighting. _Get'em, girl!_

Finally, after what felt like forever, the noises and rocking stopped, and Rafael started to uncurl - just in time to puke up his breakfast. He scrambled away and to his feet in time to avoid getting it on himself, except for one of his hoodie sleeves, which made him groan in disgust. Then he heard Bulka call out in a panic.

"Where's Rafael!?"

Another perfect opportunity. He hammered his fist against the wall of the compartment, and part of it above his head shifted open. He caught the edge and hauled himself up, groaning a bit as he did.

"Rafael!?" Bulka asked, raising her hand to her chest.

" _ **Hi.**_ " Rafael waved up at her before pulling himself all the way out and onto her hand. "I hurled all over your floorboards. I'll clean it up later." He let Bulka lower him to the ground, but he couldn't do more than crawl off her hand as he pushed down another wave of nausea. "Never doing that again, promise."

If Bulka had an answer, Rafael never heard it, as a 'Con jumped out of no where to tackle her. Rafael pushed himself to his feet, taking a few steps towards her, a thought in his mind to help her, but it wasn't needed. Bulka quickly pulled the 'Con off her and smashed their chest in. But the trouble wasn't gone. Rafael heard a loud clank and whirr behind him, and turned to see more 'Cons coming out of a hatch on the ship.

"Shit." He turned to start running away, but dropped to the ground when Bulka started shooting them, and they shot back. He kept his head down and covered, survival instincts telling him staying low and still was his best option right now. He only looked up when he heard a tearing of metal, just in time to see Bulka rip a satellite dish off of its stand and fling it like a frisbee at the attacking 'Cons. When he turned to see the results, all the 'Cons were down and out for the count, while the dish itself toppled off the side of the ship.

He pushed himself to his feet again as Bulka came back. He caught the look on her face as she knelt to offer her hand to him, and he sighed as he sat on it. Another "Mom" lecture was coming, he was sure. Wasn't rolling inside a metaphorical tin can and puking enough punishment?

Once again, the 'Cons prevented Bulka from actually saying anything, as a new wave showed up and started firing. "Where do these guys keep coming from!?"

"It's their ship, where do you think?" Bulka cupped her hands around him and started running. Rafael held on tight, especially when she jumped to grab the top of the hatch and pull it shut. Inside, the difference was like night and day, with the Decepticon ship being darkly lit and everything looked purple, grey, or blue. They were in the belly of the beast.

"Alright, now we just gotta find Juno, right?" he asked, looking up at her. "How hard can it be?"

"Harder than you think, Rafael," Bulka said, and took off running again. Rafael held on, and did his best not to hurl again.

* * *

Optima forcibly shut down the command that encouraged her to purge her tanks as she fired shot after shot at the terrorcons that were steadily advancing towards her and Wrencha. Blasts that would be fatal to any living mecha were shrugged off with barely a jerk, and the army kept advancing, pushing them back towards one of the canyon walls.

"Optima," Wrencha questioned, "if the enemy is already dead, how can we defeat them?"

 _Maybe we can't._ "Wrencha, retreat and bridge yourself back to base."

Wrencha scoffed. "You think I'll willingly abandon you?" She transformed her scalpels out of her arms and stepped up even to Optima. "Besides, you may require a medic when this is over."

Optima couldn't help the small smile behind her faceplate, even as the dead got close enough she could practically touch them when she shot them. Wrencha whirled around with her blades, a little slower than she had once been, but so too were their enemies, so it evened out.

"I recommend dissection!" her medic called out a klik later. "The smaller the pieces, the better."

Optima took a glance to Wrencha's last opponents, and found old, rusted parts where monsters had been. "Sound advice, old friend." She switched out her blasters for her swords, and turned back to the army of the dead. This time, her blows were both killing and maiming, lashing out with kicks to knock some back while carving a trail through others. She could feel Wrencha on the edges of her field, her strikes made with medical precision. Had this been a normal battle, they and the battlefield would be stained blue, the soil poisoned so that nothing would grow here except energon crystals.

But this was not a normal battle, only exemplified by the fact Megtrona was still on her perch, just watching the fighting instead of dropping down to join in. She still glowed sickly purple, and Optima's spark panged once more.

"Do you truly believe you will win, Prime?" Megtrona asked, her voice echoing over the canyon. "You will fall, and when you do, I will take great pride in tearing that bobble from your chest and replacing it with Dark Energon."

Optima narrowed her optics, but did not verbally respond. Her attention was soon caught up again in the fighting around her. Slash an arm off here. Kick this one back. Take off the helm. Uppercut and the chassis falls in two. Her blade caught on one, so she quickly switched to her blaster to shoot the one coming behind it before shaking off the first one. On and on and on she fought, Wrencha right at her back.

But, slowly, she could feel the strain. The Dark Energon did not stain the field, but it lingered, invisible, in the air. And while she could hold out with the Matrix's field protecting her spark, she could sense Wrencha starting to slow.

"Are you alright?" she asked, during a brief pause after clearing the enemies closest to them.

"Of fragging course," Wrencha snapped back, which was a clear sign she wasn't. "The Dark Energon… the exposure is sapping our strength."

"We can not falter now," Optima said, turning just enough to catch Wrencha's optic. Wrencha nodded back, and the two sprang back into the fight.

Three more of the dead returned to rest from her blade, but four snuck up behind Optima and jumped on her back, sending her to her knees. She bucked, and raised her blaster to shoot the ones she could, but another latched onto it, as two took her sword arm, and the weight drove her to the ground.

* * *

Mikoto once more pushed at the fingers holding her in place, but it was useless. The 'Cons grip around her middle was immoveable.

She had thought she and Jackson could be safe, that maybe the Decepticons had forgotten about them. But that was a false hope, for barely had Bulka and Rafael (that boy was going to make her tear her hair out, she swore) disappeared from the top of the ship, two 'Cons came out of nowhere and snatched them up. One carried them while the other held their blaster out as a guard while taking them up into the ship via an elevator. Now they were walking through dark halls, and Mikoto was wondering why they weren't just squished.

She got her answer a moment later, when one of the 'Cons asked, "Where will the humans go?" They spoke in a woman's voice, and Mikoto was starting to wonder if females made up the majority of the cybertronians, or if it was just coincidence.

"The brig. Commander Shatterglass is already interrogating the other one there, maybe she can threaten them to make her talk."

Mikoto could see Jackson mouth something, but she couldn't hear what it was, cause the sound of engines echoed down the hallway intersecting the one they just left. The 'Cons stopped and looked in the direction of the sound, and Mikoto breathed a sigh of relief when she saw Enerbee driving their way. That sigh turned into a yell when Enerbee drove right into the legs of the 'Cons, sending Mikoto and Jackson flying.

Mikoto closed her eyes, expecting a hard impact with the floor, but found herself caught around the middle again, by very different hands. She opened her eyes to stare up at Arc.

"Thanks for clearing the front door for us," Arc said with a slight smirk, before setting her and Jackson on the ground and the smirk became a frown. "But storming the _Nemesis_ was not on the activities list."

"Tell me about it," Mikoto said, shaking her head. She swore, once she saw Rafael again, she was going to strangle him.

"Enerbee!" Jackson said, running to the Camaro bot, and Mikoto couldn't help a small smile as Enerbee buzzed something and knelt to touch the top of Jackson's head.

"Come on, let's find Bulka and Rafael," Arc said, transforming out his blaster and starting off down the hall.

"What about my Mom?" Jackson asked, some desperation in his voice that made Mikoto want to hug him.

"We'll get her too, but we also need to protect you. That'll be easier if you're all in one place."

Enerbee buzzed something, and it seemed to comfort Jackson a little, but Mikoto still squeezed his hand as she took it.

"Come on, let's get moving," she said, and pulled him after their guardians.

They had probably been running for five minutes before reaching an intersection. Arc raised his fist and Enerbee stopped, shifting her foot in front of Mikoto and Jackson to stop them. Arc crept along the wall, then jumped into the hall with his blaster pointed.

"Friendly!" he shouted, as another familiar voice yelled "Hello!"

The coast was clear apparently, so Mikoto, Jackson, and Bee went to join them, and yup, there was Bulka and Rafael, cradled in her hand.

"So… you brought the humans, huh?" Arc said, lowering his blaster.

"You try getting them to stay put," Bulka argued, pointing at Rafael as she knelt and lowered her hand to the floor. "Especially this one."

"Hey, I resemble that remark," Rafael said, but he was grinning as he hopped off the hand. Mikoto felt like both rolling her eyes and marching over there to give him a good smack upside the head, but she stuck to just the former.

"We need to find Juno and get these kids out of here," Arc said.

"She's in the brig!" Jackson said. "The 'Cons said she's being interrogated right now!"

"By a 'Commander Shatterglass', if that means anything," Mikoto added.

"She's the number-two 'Con," Arc said. "She's not known for being gentle with prisoners." He started running down one of the halls. "Let's go!"

With no other real option, Mikoto took Jackson's hand again and pulled him after the 'Bots.

* * *

Shatterglass frowned, staring at the body swinging in front of her. Oh, the human wasn't dead, yet, but she'd started to lose consciousness after the last shock, so she was forced to wait until Agent Darby roused herself again. Ah, there she was, shaking her helm and shuddering.

"Well, agent Darby, you're tougher than I expected from your species," Shatterglass said, coming closer once more. "But by this point, you must realize that the Autobots have abandoned you. Perhaps their love for your race doesn't extend as far as you thought." She leaned down over the human. "I am the only one you can rely upon now."

"Oh... really?..." The human's words were slow, like she needed time to gather her thoughts.

"Indeed." Shatterglass straightened, holding up the prod. "So, you will tell me what I want to know, or…" She turned the prod back on, and let its crackle and buzz speak for itself.

"No…. Please no… no more…." Agent Darby said. Her helm bowed and she took a deep breath. "The Autobots are in a secret government base…."

She was interrupted as the sound of blaster fire was suddenly heard. Shatterglass looked to the door, but it didn't sound right for being in the brig itself. That was when she realized it was from the ship's intercom, and only one femme would send a message that way.

[If it is such a problem, deal with it yourself!] was the message she sent to Audial, before turning back to Darby. "Go on."

Darby raised her helm, and she wore a grin on her face. "Under Disneyland. Or was it Universal Studios? The latter has more robots, I think it's there."

Shatterglass growled, and slammed the prod forward, wringing an audial piercing scream from Darby before she passed out from the pain. Frag. Now she'd have to wait for her to wake up. She raised a servo to her comm unit instead. "Someone find out what is going on out there, and if it involves the Autobots, destroy them!" She cut the link, then sighed and moved her servo to cover her optics. She was having a long day.

* * *

Jackson was starting to think this was the worst day of his life. Oh, the morning with Enerbee was fun, but then his mom got kidnapped, and Rafael ran through a portal and he got shot at and picked up, and now he was running down another seemingly endless hallway, being yanked this and that by Mikoto's grip on his arm as they dodged the 'Bots and Decepticons fighting around them. He thought his feet were going to fall off, or his ears never stop ringing from the noise.

Finally, Arc had them stop by a door before the 'Bots jumped in and started shooting. After a minute, the blaster fire died off, and they heard Arc call out, "Clear!"

Mikoto led the way into the room, and Jackson gulped at seeing the dead 'Cons around the room. "Are you sure they're dead?"

":They are, Jackson,:" Enerbee said. ":We aren't taking any chances.:"

"Wait here," Arc said, pointing to the ground by his feet.

"Are you sure about that, Arc?" Bulka asked.

"They're slowing us down, and they're easy targets. They'll be safe, as long as they stay put." He emphasized the words with a look at Rafael, who shrugged it off, then the 'Bots left the room and the door sealed behind them.

Once it did, Rafael turned to Jackson and Mikoto with a grin. "So, that was awesome, right?"

"Awesome?" Jackson asked, his voice a bit squeaky, though he tried to clear it.

"How can you think that was awesome!?" Mikoto asked, whirling on Rafael with a pointed finger. "We got shot at, grabbed, and nearly blown up or squished multiple times, because of you!"

"Hey, I didn't ask for you guys to come after me. Bulka and I were doing just fine on our own." Rafael put his hands up, and Jackson instinctively flinched back, looking up at the two.

"What even made you think that running after Bulka was a good idea?"

"I thought, 'hmm, stay in base with two nerds, or take the chance to see some real robot v robot action'. It wasn't that hard a choice."

"Are you always this reckless?" Mikoto questioned, waving her arms in front of her.

"Maybe, not that it matters to you." Rafael crossed his arms, and for a moment, Jackson saw black hair and glasses instead of his brown hair and bare face. Jackson's hands started to shake.

"Well maybe it should, since you clearly can't do without a minder!" Mikoto's long hair was drawn up, and her brown eyes replaced by hard blue. Jackson closed his eyes and tried to focus on his breathing.

"Oh, I'm sorry, is your name _Bulka_? Or _Optima_? Or _Mom_?"

That was the last straw for Jackson, as his hands balled into fists. "STOP IT! Both of you." He ran past them and only just had enough attention to his surroundings to keep himself from pitching off the edge of a stair bigger than he was. There he dropped into a ball, wrapping his arms around his knees and resting his head on them, tears spilling from his eyes.

He didn't want this. He just wanted to be home, or back at base, with Mom and Enerbee, and Dad just a phone call away. Not stuck on the Decepticons' ship, not knowing what would happen to him or his mom or Enerbee or anyone. He just wanted to go home.

He hadn't even noticed Rafael or Mikoto coming over to him until he felt their hands on his shoulder and back respectively. He looked up for a moment to see that they had sat down on either side of him.

"We're sorry, Jackson," Mikoto spoke first.

"Yeah, sorry, buddy," Rafael said. "We didn't mean to make you upset. But you know it's going to be okay, right?"

"Yeah. The 'Bots are going to find your mom, come back for us, and then they'll take us home." Mikoto had such confidence in her voice it was easy to read as fake.

"How do you know?" Jackson asked, and tucked his head down again. If there was one thing his mom and dad had made sure he knew, when he was little and they were shipping people overseas as often as stores got deliveries, it was that you couldn't guarantee that you could make it out of a warzone. You could do your best, but your best wasn't always good enough. He wished he didn't understand it as well as he did now.

He was pulled from his thoughts when Mikoto shook his shoulder. "Jackson, what do you think of that?"

He looked up, wiping at his eyes, and saw her pointing to a monitor across the room. A monitor that had two shapes, and lines of code running across it in cybertronian, with what looked like some long math equations in it. He'd been watching Wrencha's monitor a lot the day before, and while he couldn't read it, he could recognize the characters used to represent numbers, according to the few questions he'd gotten Wrencha and Enerbee to answer for him.

"It's important," he finally said, pushing off the step they were sitting on and making his way down the rest of them to the lower level of the room. He could just hear the others behind him, but he was focused on the monitor. "Really important."

"How do we know it's not a recipe for space nachos?" Rafael asked.

"I know math when I see it, and this is one serious equation. And that there, and there," he pointed to the two diagrams on the screen. "They look like they're charts or schematics."

"We better get this to Optima," Mikoto said. "Can you copy it?"

Jackson pulled his backpack off and dug in an outer pocket. "I have a flashdrive," he pulled it out, "but I don't see anywhere to plug it in."

"Dude, we're on an alien spaceship," Rafael said, throwing his arms up in emphasis. "I don't think they use flashdrives."

"Well, what do you suggest?" Mikoto asked.

The other boy reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone. "Camera phone? Might not be perfect, but it'll be something."

Before Jackson or Mikoto could answer, they heard the door open and heavy footsteps enter the room. Jackson turned to the door and barely contained a gasp on seeing the Decepticon walk in. They were different from all the others they'd seen so far, dark blue instead of purple, taller and slender, with purple lights, flat arms, and a screen instead of a face. They weren't facing them, but they could clearly see the other dead Decepticons in the room.

Jackson's arm was grabbed and he heard Mikoto hiss, "Hide!" from right next to him before he felt himself being dragged along behind her. He let himself be towed, until he glanced back and spotted his backpack, left in the middle of the floor. He had to get it, or they'd be spotted!

He pulled free and dashed back to it, ignoring Mikoto's worried hiss behind him. The Deception looked like they were heading to the other side of the room, but they were turning their head back his way. He was passing the body of one of the dead 'Cons when the new one started turning his way, and he ducked down behind an arm. He was so close! Just a few feet.

The Decepticon's face flashed, a soundwave appearing on the screen. " _Jackson, no!_ " Mikoto's voice, but with an electronic reverb behind it. They started coming his way, and Jackson's heart pounded in his ears. He ducked down, hoping, praying it hadn't seen him.

That hope was ripped away with his hiding place, the dead Decepticon being thrown away with no effort on the living one's part, crashing somewhere across the room. Jackson froze, staring up into the blank screen. Even with no visible eyes, he felt as if he was being stared through, pinned in place by that alone. His breathing sped up as his fear grew, and he couldn't move.

The Decepticon nodded, just slightly, and a picture appeared on the screen. His own terrified expression stared back at him, like a strange mirror, and the arm used to fling away his cover reached out to grab him.

Two things happened at once. Jackson unfroze, falling on his butt, and he started scrambling backwards. And something flew at the side of the Decepticon's head, hitting it with a crack and clattering to the ground. The Decepticon froze, and Jackson looked down to see what had hit them. A skateboard, now with a long crack in the middle.

He looked to his right, and saw Mikoto standing with an arm outstretched, and Rafael with a shocked expression and his phone still out. His board was missing from its sling.

Mikoto met Jackson's eyes. "RUN!"

He didn't need telling twice.

He pushed to his feet and ran right between the legs of the Decepticon, just barely dodging the hand trying to grab him. He slid to a stop by his bag, grabbed a strap, then took off for the opposite side of the room, where he was certain would be another set of stairs. He could hear Mikoto and Rafael yelling behind him, and a sound that was similar to when the 'Bots transformed followed by a whirring sound.

He was right, there were stairs. He could just reach the edge on his tiptoes, but a jump gave him the height he needed to pull himself up. He did it once more when the whirring got louder and he looked up to see the source. It was bird-shaped, and seemed like some kind of drone. It swooped down and he had to duck to avoid a pair of tendrils hanging from its underside. He reached into a side pocket of his bag, and his hand closed around a heavy canister. He held it up and pressed on the trigger as the drone came back for a second pass, and a large cloud of pepper spray launched into the air in front of him.

The drone got a faceful of the chemical spray, and veered away, the pitch of its whirr changing like it was in pain. Jackson didn't let himself think about that, just turning back to the step ahead of him and pulling himself up as fast as he could. He made it up the last three steps, and bolted for the door, taking a moment to glance to the other side of the room. To his relief, Mikoto and Rafael were climbing up the last step, though the Decepticon was close behind, tendrils extended from their chest.

" _ **Ikuikuiku!**_ " Mikoto yelled once she reached the top, much like she had when she and Jackson had run from the 'Cons at the canal. She half-herded Rafael ahead of her and they met Jackson just in front of the door. Luckily, it opened as they approached it, probably a motion sensor, and they ran into the hall.

"Which way did the 'Bots go?" Jackson asked

"Right!" Rafael said, and they headed that way, hearing the buzzing of the drone behind them, before it was overtaken by the sound of engines.

The 'Bots whipped around a corner ahead of them, and Jackson would have sighed in relief if he had the breath. Bulka transformed and rolled past them, blaster up to fire on the drone. Enerbee and Arc rolled to a stop next to the kids, and Enerbee opened her door.

"I thought I told you to stay put!" Arc said, but Jackson didn't hear Mikoto's reply as he dove into Enerbee, climbing over to the driver's seat, and gasping as he caught a glimpse of the backseat in the rearview.

"Mom!" He turned in his seat, even as Enerbee slid the seatbelt across him.

Mom was slumped in the backseat, seemingly out cold, but she shifted and blinked at his voice. "Jack-Attack, Mommy's tired, but you can snuggle if you want." She lifted an arm, then dropped it again as her eyes closed and head lolled to the side. For a moment, terror shot through Jackson, but then he heard her light snore and saw her chest rising and falling steadily.

"What happened to her?" he asked.

":Repeated shocks with an energon prod, from what we can tell,:" Enerbee said. ":She should be fine once Wrencha looks her over.:"

"I hope so," Rafael said, and Jackson looked at him in time to see the grin on his face. "For Jack-Attack's sake."

Jackson thumped Rafael's arm and turned to face front. "I liked the Incredibles growing up, sue me."

"Alright, I'll stop… for now." Rafael leaned back in his seat. "Man, running around like that is exhausting. How long till we bridge back to base?"

":Yeah, about that…:" Enerbee said.

"What is it?" Jackson asked.

":Well, Arc and I were in such a rush to get here, we didn't… grab the remote.:"

"You left the remote to the groundbridge at base?" Jackson and Rafael had to cover their eyes as they suddenly exited the _Nemesis_ into the sunlight.

"So we gotta drive all the way home!?" Rafael slumped. "How long will that take?"

":Only a couple hours,:" Enerbee said. ":Maybe less, if Wrencha took the remote and she and Optima get back before us.:"

Jackson translated, and he and Rafael settled in. Before long, the adrenaline started to drain from his system, and he fell into a doze, which he would only be jolted from when they returned to base.

* * *

Optima was forced to her knees by the weight of the undead beasts on top of her. The pervasive radiation of the Dark Energon made her limbs feel even heavier, even her optics wanted to close and not open again. She could hear Wrencha's screams, and for a moment, she let her optics close.

"Primus, Father, give me the strength to win this fight," she said, soft and almost inaudible under the growls of the beasts. But it was heard, for a moment later the Matrix pulsed, and her strength returned.

"Rraahhhh!" She stabbed her sword up, and pierced the terrorcon above her, allowing her a bit of venting room. She fired her blaster, twice, three times, and it pushed enough of the dead back that she could break free of their trap, quickly shooting and decapitating all in range. She turned and saw where Wrencha was being pinned, and rushed over, slicing the helm off one terrorcon before grabbing the two attacking Wrencha and slamming both into the ground, shattering their bodies.

She turned back and helped her medic off the ground. "Damage?"

Wrencha glared at her right arm, which had converted back to her servo. "Sliced cabling, I can't bend the arm now. But I can still fight."

Optima nodded. "Then let's finish this, and send these frames to rest." She turned back to the terrorcons, and with Wrencha at her side, dove back into the fray.

Overheard, she could hear the growls and threats of Megtrona, mixed with the ache of her spark. But it was old noise, old pain, she could ignore it. Instead her focus narrowed down, to a world where she slashed and cut through the terrorcons. The Matrix's power fueled her and acted as a shield, and the Dark Energon did not drain her.

Finally, the last of the terrorcons fell, the cybertronian dead returned to their rest. After one last survey of the battlefield, she looked up at Megtrona, who wore a scowl that could put a cyberwolf to shame.

"So you still live. But this is simply a prelude. I doubt you will survive the main event."

Optima sheathed her blades and ran to the cliff face, gripping the stone and pulling herself up, far faster than most would expect from a femme of her size. But she'd always been quick for her frame. "You will not prevail, Megtrona!" she called up. "Not while energon flows through my veins!"

She reached the top of the cliff, and came face to face with Megtrona. Her optics widened as she saw what the stain on her face was, old energon dried in the pattern of spit. Cliffstar.

"How fitting," Megtrona said, touching her chassis, "because once again, Dark Energon flows through mine." She swung a backhanded blow at Optima, and she leaned back on battle instinct. A moment later, Megtrona transformed, and blasted off. Optima hauled herself up and tried to shoot her down, but she was gone too fast.

Optima sighed, transforming her blaster away. What are you planning, sister? What is the game here?

"Optima," Wrencha's voice called, and Optima looked down to see her medic had followed her up. Optima reached down and pulled her to the top, and they both stared down into the canyon.

"If this wasn't Megtrona's endgame, what is?" Wrencha asked.

"I don't know, but I fear it may be worse than we can imagine." Optima reached for her comm, calling into base. "Arc. Wrencha and I are ready to return. Send a groundbridge to our coordinates."

No response.

"Arc, do you copy?" Again no response, so she switched to the direct channel. "Arc, do you read me?"

" _Loud and clear, Optima,_ " he said. " _What's up?_ "

"Wrencha and I are ready to return. We require a groundbridge."

" _Oh. Um, about that…. None of us are in base at the moment._ "

Optima and Wrencha shared a glance. "Where are you?"

" _Heading back from the Nemesis. We're about… an cycle and a half out._ "

"You're where!?" Wrencha asked.

"Where are the children?" Optima asked.

" _With us, as well as Juno. It's a long story._ "

So it would seem. "Very well." Off the comm, she asked, "Wrencha, do you have the remote?"

"I don't recall grabbing it, but…" Wrencha reached into her subspace and a moment later pulled it out. "I must have left it after we lost Cliffstar."

Optima nodded. "We have the remote and will return to base to bridge you back. I expect a full debrief when you arrive."

"Yes, Optima." There was that petulant tone, the one Arc adopted when he realized he was going to get in trouble for something. Optima wasn't sure how she would handle said punishment yet, but it would depend on the story they told.

* * *

Mikoto finally had a moment to close her eyes and just breath, and she took advantage of it, leaning against the wall of the mezzanine's lower level. Arc and Bulka were explaining what had happened that day to Optima, who was welding some kind of metal cast onto Wrencha's arm. The medic herself had just finished instructing Mikoto on how to insert an IV into Juno's arm, while the woman rested on a cot she and Rafael had dug out of storage. Jackson was sitting on the edge of the cot, holding his mom's hand, while Rafael stood next to him, throwing in his own comments to the 'Bots' story.

She just couldn't believe it. The joyride through Jasper had been bad enough, but this time, it was worse. Her heart was still racing, and her veins still singing with that siren song of adrenaline and exhilaration. She'd only felt it a few times before, but it was a song that made her want more, to keep flying, keep chasing after it.

_No. No, I can't. Stick to the Plan._

She took a deep breath, holding it for several seconds, and slowly exhaled, repeating it until the song died to a whisper, then disappeared. When she opened her eyes, Arc and Bulka had finished their story, and Optima was setting aside the welder and helping Wrencha stand up.

"What happened to you guys anyway?" Rafael asked.

"We engaged an army of undead cybertronian warriors," Wrencha explained.

"Wait, like zombies? You fought freaking zombies and we missed it!?"

Optima turned to Arc, fixing a stern look at him. "Arc, I put you in charge because I trusted you to understand the importance of protecting our allies. Your disregard for that does you no credit."

Arc ducked his head and held one of his arms. "Sorry, Optima."

Optima then turned to Bulka. "And Bulka, you exercised extremely poor judgement in your handling of Juno, and in allowing the children to accompany you."

"It won't happen again, Optima," Bulka said, her voice contrite in a way that tugged at Mikoto's heart.

"But it wasn't her fault," she said. "She told us to stay put, and we followed her anyway, and she didn't have any way to send us back."

"Yeah! And it was a good thing we were there too." Rafael pulled his phone out of his pocket and turned it on. "Check it out. Recon!" He held it up and Optima leaned down for a look.

"Wrencha, come look. It could be of some importance to Megtrona's plans."

Enerbee beeped something, and Optima replied, "Yes, she is back."

The whole team seemed to share a grimace, and Mikoto had a sudden flashback to burning red eyes. She suppressed a shudder, but hugged her arms around herself.

Wrencha leaned down, but her frown looked more like confusion than concentration. "I… don't understand. You have recon on… Audial?"

Rafael turned the phone around, and Mikoto got a glimpse of what was on the screen, which wasn't the data. "Whoops, slideshow. That's the 'Con who attacked us on the bridge, right after Mikoto threw my skateboard at her head." He gave a small laugh. "That was actually pretty cool, even if she busted my board."

 _Is he seriously laughing at this?_ Mikoto could not keep quiet after that, and pushed off the wall. "Is that what you care about? How 'cool' it was and your stupid board!? We were nearly killed and you're acting like we just took a trip to the mall!"

"Hey, we made it out alive, didn't we?" Rafael defended. "That's the important part isn't?"

"No, the important part is the fact that we were _nearly killed, you idiot!_ " She raised her arms in frustration. "And not just us, but Jackson, Juno, even the 'Bots!" She closed her eyes, clenched her fists for a moment, and made a decision. "I-I can't do this. I have my job, my family, people and things relying on me…. I can't. I'm done."

"You're leaving?" Jackson asked, and Mikoto turned to him. He'd been so strong today, and honestly looked like he needed a good cry, and she was sorry to add to that.

"I'm sorry, Jackson." She placed her hand on his shoulder. "I'm still your friend, if you want me to be."

"Mikoto," Optima said, and she looked up at the Autobot leader. "Putting you in harm's way was never our intent. However, it is no longer just the safety of you three that is at risk, but the safety of all humankind. We will respect your decision if you wish to leave."

The groundbridge turned on, and Mikoto whipped her head around. When did Wrencha get over there? She was right here a second ago.

"No point in long goodbyes, there's the door," the medic said from by the groundbridge controls.

Mikoto turned back to Jackson and squeezed his shoulder, only to be a little surprised when he wrapped his arms around her waist. She hugged him back, and smiled at him as they pulled apart. "I hope your mom gets better soon."

Jackson smiled back, and rubbed at his eye. "Thanks. I'll see you at school."

"See you there." She turned and walked past Rafael without a word, heading down the stairs. At the bottom, Arc waited with his arms crossed. "I remember; 'you don't exist'," she said, waving at him as she passed.

"Don't make me hunt you down."

There was a note of… something, in his voice that almost made Mikoto pause. And even was she entered the groundbridge, bones vibrating and her blood starting to sing again, she almost stopped. Almost turned and ran back, to the 'Bots, the danger and thrill and the chance to-

_No. Stick to the Plan._

She fixed her gaze forward, and crossed the event horizon.

* * *

Shatterglass watched the bridge doors, waiting at attention so still even her usually traitorous wings were still and stiff. After the Autobots had left the _Nemesis_ , she had ordered an eradicon tail them (which worked until a groundbridge opened for them) and started compiling a damage report. Luckily, they had only lost seven vehicons, the rest of the troops being either knocked out or smart enough to play dead when the Autobots came through. However, a navigation dish had been torn from its stand by Bulka, and it would take dium to repair. Dium they likely did not have, as Audial had reported she had found three humans on the bridge, and while she had tried to capture them, they managed to evade her and take a photo of the spacebridge schematics that had been displayed, before the Autobots collected them.

All this information was compiled in a report to be presented by Audial to their master when she returned from wherever the Dark Energon had prompted her to go. And now all Shatterglass could do is wait, and accept her punishment.

The bridge always had a low buzz of noise, even on dium like this, but as the doors opened, and a roiling EM field was felt, all noise stopped and all attention focused on the owner of that field. Shatterglass kept her own field firm, but contrite, and her optics leveled straight ahead, even as Megtrona approached her.

"Master, I apologi-"

Her words were cut off by a sharp backhand, snapping her helm to the side and she felt a welling of energon there, meaning it had cut into her cheek.

"What. Were. My orders?" Megtrona's words were growled, but ice cold with her fury. Shatterglass had to stifle a shuddery invent.

"To stop groveling, and await your command," she recited, turning her helm back.

"At what time did I ever order the capture of a worthless organic?"

"Never, my lady."

"Then why did you do it!?" Her servo whipped back around, curled into a fist and strong enough to knock Shatterglass halfway across the room. She skidded to a scraping stop, her wings taking the brunt of it, and she pushed herself to kneel as Megtrona approached, her gaze on her Master's pedes.

"My intentions were to find the location of the Autobot base, that we might crush our enemy when your plans come to fruition."

"And instead, your scheme only resulted in the loss of troops, stolen intel, and damage to my ship that have delayed my plans!" Another fist came down, but this time, Shatterglass did not yield to it. Her arm and helm snapped up, blocking the blow and locking optics with Megtrona.

"A delay, not a derailment," she said. "The humans are weak, tiny, and disgusting, but they are not entirely useless, and through them, there is a way we can continue."

Megtrona glared, but she lifted her servo, grabbing Shatterglass's arm and hauling her in close. "Explain, Shatterglass. Quickly."

Shatterglass smiled, and did so.

* * *

When Mikoto got home, the first thing she did was take a shower, to wash away her day. After, she went to the garage to work on her science project, which was supposed to be a scale model of the solar system. However, as she went to grab her guidesheet for painting, she realized she forgot her bag at the base. She considered for a moment trying to contact them, just to get it back, but she shut that thought down. She'd just text Jackson later and ask him to bring it to her at school.

So instead of schoolwork, she turned to her tried and true method to get over the things that went against the Plan; grab a sketchbook and draw anything and everything relating to the topic until she exhausted it. She didn't have a photographic memory, but she had a good one, so with her iPod hooked to the speaker and her favorite playlist on, she drew all that came to mind. The Autobot's emblem, headshots and vague full bodies of Jackson, Rafael, and the 'Bots, Arc's altmode again, the groundbridge, even Megtrona's evil optics and Audial's blank face made it into the book.

She was so in the zone of drawing that when a knock came at the garage door, she jumped and almost sent a line of lead across the sketch of Optima she was starting. It wouldn't be Uncle Bill, he'd just open the garage, and a glance at the clock said it was too early for him to be home. _So who is it?_ She set her sketchpad aside and went to look in the window, to be met by Rafael's face, Bulka in the drive behind him.

"Hey, can I come in?" He raised his arm, and showed off her bag. "I brought this for you."

For a spiteful moment, Mikoto considered just leaving him out there and arranging to get her bag back later, but common sense won out and she hit the button to open the door.

" _ **Gracias**_. I thought you were gonna leave me out there for a minute." He looked around the garage. "Swanky place. Here. You left this at base." He held her bag out to her.

Mikoto took it. "Thanks. I was gonna ask Jackson to bring it to me in Trig on Monday."

"Yeah, that's not likely, I don't think he's leaving base until his mom wakes up. I'm about to head over to his place to grab some things for him. But-" he cut her off as she opened her mouth, "-I wanted to talk to you about something."

Mikoto had a pretty good feeling what this talk would be about, but figured if she let him get it out now, she'd leave her alone about it later. She dropped the bag on the table, then turned and leaned against it with her arms crossed. "Alright, talk."

Rafael frowned for a moment, like he was trying to think of where to start, before he finally said "I don't get you."

Mikoto raised a brow. "You came all this way and returned my bag just to say you don't get me?"

"Well, I don't." He raised a hand to run through his hair. "I mean, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that most people would never even dream was possible practically falls in your lap, and two days later you get a little spooked and run away."

"First off, it was three days, and secondly, in those three days, I was taken on a joyride, shot at multiple times, grabbed at, captured, dropped, and nearly squished or blown up more times than I can count. Why would I want to go back to that?"

"Because you were meant to be part of it."

That made her blink. "I'm meant to?"

"Come on, you can't see it?" Rafael picked up her sketchbook and started flipping through it. "An ordinary student gets the chance for an exchange trip, but it's to the most boring town in America, only to discover that the town is the home base of a team of alien warriors. There's coincidence, and there's fate, and I'm pretty sure this is the latter."

"Just because my life has the tropes of an anime doesn't mean I want it to turn into one." Mikoto shook her head and waved a hand. "Like I said at base, I have responsibilities, to my work and my family, that I can't just throw away for an adventure likely to get me killed. That's not part of the Plan."

"Plan?" Now it was Rafael's turn to raise a brow. "What plan?"

Great, she had to explain. No one ever seemed to like it when she did. She started playing with one of the smaller paper mache balls on the table. "My whole life, practically since before I was born, my parents have had a plan for me, for my future. And I've always done my part in it. I keep my grades up, so I can get into the best schools. I've attended music and art lessons since I was three, earned an orange belt in aikido so I'm well rounded and cultured. Even joining the exchange program is part of it; my parents want me to attend an American university for business school, and it's easier if I'm already in the American system."

"That can not be what you want to do with your life," Rafael said. "I can't imagine anyone wanting to do what Mom and Dad tell them to do forever."

"Well not all of us can 'stick it to the man' the way you do," Mikoto said. "I was raised to respect and honor my parents, and I do that by following the Plan."

"So you've never done something just because you wanted to? Never had even one selfish moment for yourself?"

"Of course I've been selfish." She pointed a light glare at him. "I hog the **_korokke_** at family dinners, I picked guitar as my second instrument instead of a **_shamisen_** or a flute. I listen to Bulgarian shriek metal, for crying out loud."

"Wait, seriously?" Rafael looked stunned for a moment, then shook himself. "Never mind, that's not what I'm talking about. Those are small things, I'm talking big things, doing the things that make you happy, not your parents."

"What makes you think I'm not happy?" Mikoto's hand closed around the ball.

"Cause I can read people, and every time I've seen you around school or town the past few months, even if you smile, you're not really happy, you're existing. Then, these past couple days happened, and you came alive. It was like a completely different person, and then we got on the _Nemesis_ , and you know what happened there."

"We nearly died."

"No! Well, yeah, but we didn't, because you saved us! You distracted Audial long enough for Jackson to get away, and then you knocked away that tentacle that tried to grab me. You pulled us both out of the line of fire so many times, hell, just the fact you came to save me is incredible! No one would have blamed you for staying back at base."

Mikoto shook her head. "That part wasn't incredible. Bulka put me in charge, and I take responsibility like that seriously. It's just part of who I am."

"Exactly!" He snapped the sketchbook shut, and pointed it at her. "A person willing to run into danger like that, to save someone they don't even like that much? That's not an average school girl, that's a freaking hero! You were born to be so much more than Mommy and Daddy's perfect doll."

That almost broke Mikoto. Was almost enough to make her run in to grab a bag and head back to base with him. She clenched her hand tight around the paper mache ball, and she turned around to face the table.

"A for effort, Rafael, but I'm perfectly fine being 'my parents' perfect doll'." Her voice was tight because her throat suddenly became so. "You should probably go, you don't want to keep Jackson waiting."

Rafael was quiet for a minute, then there was a muffled thump and a scoff. "Fine. Guess I'll see you at school, **_Muñequita_**." He walked out of the garage and a minute later, she heard Bulka's engine start up and the two pull out.

" ** _It's for the best, Mikoto,_** " she told herself against the prickles in her eyes. " _ **Everything will be fine as long as you stick to the Plan.**_ "

That did nothing to combat the emptiness in her gut, or the tears that trailed down her face.

* * *

Contrary to popular Autobot belief, Optima did not like to brood. But there were times, like right now, where there was little else for her to do.

Wrencha was at the main console, analyzing the plans that the children had recovered. On the other side of the stairs Enerbee was watching over Jackson, trying to keep him entertained and his mind off his mother and Mikoto. Rafael and Bulka had gone out to collect things for a "sleep over", but Optima suspected the boy was going to try and bring Mikoto back. Arc had disappeared into one of the training rooms soon after she had left, and hadn't even noticed Optima when she had checked on him a short bit ago.

 _She had more of an impact on us than she realized_ , Optima mused. She herself was missing the girl, though they had not interacted much. She could sense from their first meeting that Mikoto had a strong spirit, and an instinct to protect others, with how she naturally placed herself between Optima and Jackson. According to the team's reports, she showed that instinct several times on their trip to the _Nemesis_. But besides that, she had displayed a lot of the same characteristics that Optima remembered she had once had, before she became Optima. Having Mikoto on the team, even just as a ward, would have been good for them all. But she made her choice to leave, and Optima would never disrespect that unless she was in danger.

"Optima!" Wrencha's voice cut through her thoughts and she pushed off the wall to join her medic. "These plans are engineering spec for a space-time vortex generator; a very powerful one if the numbers are accurate."

Then it can only mean one thing. "Megtrona is building a spacebridge, if Shatterglass hasn't already."

"That's… not good, right?" Jackson asked.

":I don't think so, Jackson,:" Enerbee said.

"All evidence points to Megtrona planning to use the spacebridge to bring forth her conquering army," Optima said.

"The main event Megtrona referred to?" Wrencha asked. "But the only place she could possibly find so many fallen cybertronians is…." She trailed off, staring towards the ceiling, and Enerbee's vents and wings hitched.

Optima nodded. "Precisely, Wrencha. Megtrona's army will come from Cybertron."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi! It's only been... two months since the last update. Yeah, I got pulled into working on **The AllSpark Changed My Life** (which is nearly completely written, only 3 chapters at most to go), so this got set aside. But I'm back, and once AllSpark is finished, this shall become my main fic, though I do not know if I'll be able to have a set update schedule for it, unless you guys wouldn't mind me taking a hiatus between Darkness Rising and the post-DR Interlude I have planned to create a backlog of chapters.
> 
> Yes, that's right, I'm planning on Interludes for this fic. In some cases, they will be episode reflections from the POV of a character who hasn't had one yet (the DR Interlude will be Wrencha and Audial), others will be semi-filler chapters, such as the kids celebrating a holiday with their guardians or an average day on the _Nemesis_ from Knock Out's point of view. This is to help build the relationships between the kids and the 'Bots, and between the different 'Cons.
> 
> So what'd you guys think of this chapter? Any particular scene stand out? Let me know in the reviews!
> 
> Also, if anyone is interested, I have a discord server for the purpose of talking about my fics and Transformers in general. Here is the link, just remove parentheses and spaces. The invite code is **discord.g)g/cburh9Y.**


	5. Darkness Rising Pt 5

Mikoto had managed to get a base coat on all the planets and the start of a second coat on Mercury, Venus and Earth before she went to bed. As she slept, she dreamt of riding a motorcycle down a near endless highway, Arc next to her, and they raced down, avoiding Decepticons and potholes and just having a great time, before her alarm woke her up. It was early, but she had an opening shift at KO Burger, so she got up, got dressed, grabbed a muffin for a quick breakfast, and headed out on the ten-speed. Luckily, Uncle Bill was still asleep, and she had been asleep already before he had gotten home, so she didn't have to fend off any questions about where her motorcycle went.

_Not like he was even mine to begin with. He's his own person, and his world is one I don't belong in._

A voice that sounded a lot like Rafael snorted in the back of her head. _Keep telling yourself that._

She rolled up to the bike rack on the side of KO Burger, jumping off and securing the bike. But, as she looked up at the KO sign, she couldn't help a small sigh and a thump of her head against her bike seat. _It'll be okay, Mikoto. Just stick to-_

"Nice wheels," a voice behind her said, and she turned so fast her hair hit her in the face. Arc was sitting there, in the same spot he'd been the night they met, and she'd been so lost in thought she hadn't even noticed him.

Mikoto stood, dusting off her pants. "Arc, please don't. Rafael already tried to get me to come back, and I turned him down flat. If Optima sent you, tell her I respect you all a lot, but there's nothing I can do to help you fight against the Decepticons."

"Optima didn't send me, and no one's asking for your help," he said.

Mikoto frowned. "Then why are you here? If it's for my protection or something, I think I'll be plenty safe here. No one would look for an Autobot at a fast food place."

Arc tilted his tire and let out a sigh. "Look, Ko, I just lost someone I cared about. Maybe it's the grief talking, or maybe you're just growing on me, but I'm not ready to just say goodbye. So, this is me, being completely selfish, asking you to come back."

Selfish. That's what Rafael had asked her to be the night before. Mikoto looked away from Arc as she thought. Yes, she'd been selfish before, but only for little things, tiny acts of rebellion that never broke out the way she had thought they would. After all, they didn't completely derail the Plan, so there was no worry.

But could she do it? Could she throw away everything her parents had done for her?

Except... it wasn't throwing it away. She was still going to go to school, still get good grades, still work. But she didn't have to let it rule her life anymore. Her parents were in Japan. They didn't know anything about her life except what she told them in their occasional video calls. They… didn't control her anymore.

She looked up at the KO Burger sign once more, and smiled as that realization seemed to lift a weight off her. Maybe- no! It _was_ time for her to be selfish. It was time for a new plan.

She turned to Arc. "Think we can get to base in under thirty minutes?"

Arc didn't have a face, but the way his mirrors tilted and his engine revved, it could easily be read as a smirk. "How about twenty?"

Her smile spread into a grin and she jumped on Arc's back, holding tight as he tore out of the parking lot, sending a quick wave to Carlos as they passed him walking up.

* * *

The whole team had been on edge since the night before. Wrencha had forgone recharge once more to find the spacebridge's location. Rafael had done his best to keep his, Jackson, Bulka and Enerbee's spirits up until the boys fell asleep and their guardians went to recharge. Arc had gone straight from the training room to his berth, and had sped out of the base early that morning without a word to anyone, so Optima had not been able to inform him of what they had discovered.

And Optima? She had recharged, but fitfully, full of images of fallen comrades rising up and driving her to seek refuge on a steep boulder. The dead crashed against it in waves, servos reaching up to try and drag her down with them, even as she shot them down. And the whole while, she could hear Megtrona, alternatively laughing and roaring orders to the army.

She walked into the atrium that morning little rested, but with her best face on for the team. The boys were already awake, Jackson sitting on Enerbee's shoulder while Rafael stood on one of Bulka's pedes. They were all gathered around Wrencha, who turned as Optima came over.

"I was about to call you," Wrencha said. "I have pinpointed the location of the spacebridge; high in Earth's orbit." Her optics dipped down.

"Out of our reach," Optima finished the thought.

"Okay, so you guys don't fly," Rafael said, jumping off Bulka's pede and waving an arm to the groundbridge. "Can't you just groundbridge there?"

"The groundbridge has a limited range," Wrencha explained, using her servos to illustrate her point. "Stretched all the way to orbit, the vortex could snap, and scatter the team across the stars."

Rafael and Jackson both gained similar looks of shock, and unconsciously leaned closer to their guardians. It warmed Optima's spark to see the bonds already forming, but this was not the time to comment on it.

"Since Megtrona is likely already in transit, it is a risk we will have to take," she said. "Reaching the spacebridge first is our only means of stopping her."

The sound of an engine and a horn coming from the tunnel entrance had Optima and the others turning to it, and Arc rode in with a passenger on his back. One who quickly revealed herself to be Mikoto as Arc stopped and she took off her helmet.

"Hey," she said, waving at them as Arc returned to mech mode. "Guess who's back."

Rafael let out a whoop. "So you finally got tired of being a doll, **_Muñequita_**?" he asked.

Mikoto threw a glare his way, but there was not time to indulge their banter. "Autobots, prepare for departure," Optima said

Mikoto and Arc shared glances before looking back to her. "Where to?" Arc asked aloud, but a text message appeared in Optima's HUD. [What's going on?]

Optima sent him a short databurst on what they had discovered, while Rafael explained to Mikoto, "They gotta get to the spacebridge, which, guess what, is in space!"

"But, I thought they couldn't get there?" Mikoto asked.

"They can't," Jackson said. "Not really."

Optima stepped up to the groundbridge as Wrencha activated it, and listened as the children gave their wishes to their guardians.

"Be seeing you," Mikoto said.

"Be careful, 'Bee," Jackson said.

":I will, don't worry, Jackson,:" Enerbee said, and came up to join Optima with Arc.

"I'm so jealous, man," Rafael said, followed by a soft thump that was likely him hitting Bulka's leg.

"Don't even think of following us," Bulka warned him.

"Hey, I lack common sense, but I ain't that dumb!"

"Could have fooled me," Mikoto said, and there was the rustle of a brief shoving match.

"Optima, if you leave me stranded on a planet teeming with humans, I will never forgive you."

Optima smiled at her medic's threats. "Until we meet again, old friend." Her battlemask snapped into place, and she looked over her shoulders to her team. "Autobots, roll out!"

She transformed into her vehicle mode and sped through the groundbridge, pushing her engine as hard as it could go. She would need all the power and speed to get to the spacebridge after exiting the vortex- now!

The spacebridge was impressive, large enough that warships like the _Nemesis_ or the _Ark_ could fly through with room on each side for at least one corvette. It must have taken several quartex, if not a couple groon to construct, which explained why the Decepticons had been quiet for so long.

"Transform and gravitize," she ordered, changing to her root mode and activating the maglocks in her pedes as she approached the spacebridge. Around her, her team did the same, though Bulka stumbled as she landed.

"Whoa! Anyone afraid of heights don't look down. Or up. Or left."

"So Megtrona is packing enough Dark Energon to revive all of Cybertron's dead for her army?" Arc asked, bearing his denta in a snarl. "Just when you think that sick glitch can't sink any lower…."

": _Nemesis_ incoming!:" Enerbee announced, and Optima could just see the warship approaching against the backdrop of stars.

"Since we have no means of disabling the spacebridge…." She activated her blasters, the rest of the team following suit. "Nothing gets in or out!"

_Ready when you are, sister._

* * *

Shatterglass stood at the center of the bridge's catwalk as they approached the spacebridge, observing but not giving orders. That was Megtrona's job, and her master was standing at the captain's position, watching their progress on the console.

Megtrona's EM field rippled with fury, and the reason was clearly visible on the monitor, multicolored spots standing on the surface of the spacebridge.

"She figured it out faster than anticipated." Megtrona glared at Shatterglass over her shoulder. "This idea of yours had better work."

Shatterglass bowed her helm slightly. "I assure you, my lady, once Audial locks onto Cybertron's coordinates, the Autobots will be no issue. But, if you wish to do away with them now…." She left the suggestion open for her master to fill in the blanks.

Megtrona seemed to consider it, then slammed her servo down onto the ship's intercom. "Decepticons! Mobilize and destroy them!"

Shatterglass was more than glad she had quietly alerted a squad of eradicons to be ready for just that order.

* * *

Mikoto was practically on the edge of her seat and the minutes ticked by since the 'Bots left. Jackson and Rafael filled her in on what Megtrona's plan was, and just the idea was enough to make her shiver. But nothing had happened, even though the 'Cons were approaching the spacebridge. It was almost worse than if something was happening.

" _Well, what are they waiting for?_ " Arc finally asked.

A short pause, then Optima announced, " _It appears the Decepticons have sustained damage to their interstellar navigational systems._ "

" _Hey, that's my handiwork,_ " Bulka said.

" _Great job, Bulka. Without that dish, Megtrona will not be able to aim the spacebridge from the Nemesis._ "

"Don't the Decepticons know where their own planet is?" Rafael asked.

"Naturally," Wrencha said. "But Cybertron is many light years away. To reach their target, their aim must be astronomically precise."

"But, if they don't have a navigation system, why show up?" Mikoto asked.

" _Megtrona must have access to another targeting system,_ " Optima said. " _A remote one._ "

That seemed to remind Jackson of something, cause he went to the computer as Wrencha scoffed. "From what I know of Earth's technology, there isn't a single radio-telescope dish on the planet powerful enough to pinpoint Cybertron."

"What about a whole bunch of linked radio-telescope dishes?" Jackson offered, and Mikoto turned to see he had pulled up a website showing rows of said dishes in the middle of a desert. "Like the Giant-Size Array in Texas?"

"Zip-ip-ip," Wrencha said, waving her finger at them. "This is not child's play."

" _Good thinking, Jackson,_ " Optima said, causing Wrencha to point a look of surprise to the console. " _Wrencha, have Agent Darby alert the array staff to the security hazard._ "

"I'll wake her up!" Rafael offered, and ran over to Juno's cot.

"Be careful," Jackson said, turning back to the computer and typing something. "If she's bothered while trying to sleep, she has a tendency to-"

"OW!"

Mikoto turned to see Rafael rear back from Juno, hands on his nose. Juno's arm was outstretched, and she said, "Lennox, wake me again and I'll throw you across the barracks," before it dropped back to the cot.

"...Do that," Jackson finished, not looking up from his typing.

"Maybe be a little quicker with the warning next time," Rafael said, coming back over while rubbing his face.

"That may be a challenge, Optima," Wrencha said.

Jackson suddenly smacked the side of his fist onto the desk. "Damn it! I can't get past the array's firewalls. They're too thick!"

"You actually think you could keep the Decepticons out?" Wrencha asked, her tone completely disbelieving.

"Maybe, if I can get in," Jackson said.

An idea hit Mikoto like a lightbulb and she walked over. "Wait, what if we got you all the way in? Like, 'inside-the-building' in?" She pointed to one of the pictures, which showed the array's main building.

Jackson's face lit up. "I could log onto their internal network on the other side of the firewall."

" _The risk is too great,_ " Optima said. " _The Decepticons will be there. Possibly even on site._ "

Mikoto turned back to the main console, her back straightening like when she would debate with one of her parents' associates. "Optima, with all due respect, you said so yourself; this is bigger than the safety of three humans."

"Yeah, it's our planet at risk, and if we let the 'Cons win, we're all fragged," Rafael said.

"Let us do this, for us and you," Mikoto finished.

" _Jackson?_ " Optima asked.

Jackson took a moment, set his shoulders, and nodded. "I want to give it a shot."

" _Very well. Wrencha, obtain the array's coordinates and prepare to-_ "

" _Optima, we got a welcoming committee,_ " Bulka interrupted."

" _Good luck._ " Optima cut the comm and Wrencha turned to look at Mikoto, Jackson and Rafael.

"I hope you know what you're doing, Jackson," she said. "Give me the coordinates for the Giant-Sized Array."

 _I hope so too,_ Mikoto thought. _I hope we all can do this._

* * *

As they went through the groundbridge, Jackson once again felt his bones vibrating and his stomach doing flips. On the other side, he stopped for a moment, along with Rafael and Mikoto, to regain his bearings and shake off the odd feeling.

"Definitely gonna have to get used to that," Mikoto said, before leading the way to the array's command center. The door was locked, but Jackson held up his mom's government key card and it let them in.

"Having a secret agent mom rocks," Rafael commented.

"Shh," Mikoto whispered. "We don't want any guards catching us."

The hall they were in was short and empty, leading to an L turn to the right. They crept down the hall, and Jackson peeked around the corner. All clear once again, and there were three doors, two singles on the right side of the hall and a set of double doors at the end. Jackson went to the first door and pressed his ear to the crack between the door and the wall. When he didn't hear anything he opened it, and found an office, a little oddly set up with the desk facing the wall instead of the door, but it had a computer and it was empty, which is what they needed.

He ran over and jumped into the chair, pulling a flashdrive from his pocket as he turned on the monitor. As he expected, it needed a username and password.

"How are we gonna find the password?" Mikoto asked.

"No need," Jackson said, and plugged in the flashdrive. A sequence tapped on the keyboard later, and they were in.

"How'd you do that?" Rafael asked.

"Military grade code cracker program. I got it from my dad's house last time I visited."

"Think you can hack the schools computers and change my Ds to Bs?" There was a thump that was probably Mikoto smacking Rafael's arm. "Ow. I'm kidding!"

"I'm in," Jackson said, and narrowed his eyes as the screen popped up with the program to control the dishes, the program to interpret the results, a list of codes he needed, and a fourth just as important one. "And so are the Decepticons."

"What? How can you tell?" Mikoto asked.

"Schematics. The same ones from the _Nemesis_." Jackson patted his pockets and smiled as he found and pulled out a second flashdrive. "But this time, I can download them." He plugged it in and set it to do just that, a small progress bar popping up in the corner of the screen. "Now I just have to keep the Decepticons from locking onto Cybertron."

"How are you going to do that?" Rafael asked.

"Easy. I have these override codes here, I just start with the lowest one and use them to turn the dishes somewhere else. When the schematics are downloaded, one of you can take them to Wrencha and maybe she can use them to shut it down."

"Won't the Decepticons notice?" Mikoto asked.

"They'll know I'm in the system, but they have no way to know that I'm in the house." Jackson turned to give her a smile. "It's a piece of cake."

He turned back to the computer to see the results screen had changed, showing three geometric spheres converging on each other until they became one red sphere. "They're locking onto Cybertron. But not for long." He entered the first override, and the spheres separated again, the dishes now pointing at some distant star cluster.

"Whoo! Way to go, **_Cerebro_** ," Rafael said, smacking the back of the chair.

"Don't celebrate just yet," Jackson said, and even as he spoke, the circles started converging again. "It's not just one and done, I have to keep doing it until I run out of overrides, or Wrencha figures out a way to stop it." He put in the next override and looked down at the progress bar of the schematic download. It was at 50% already. That was fast.

"And what will happen once the 'Cons realize you're messing with them?" Mikoto asked.

"It's just virtual combat, Mikoto. Like online gaming, with real world consequences."

"Yeah, **_Muñequita_** ," Rafael said. "The 'Cons are probably thousands of miles away."

A soft click and a strange whirring sound came from behind them, and Mikoto shouted something in Japanese before jumping up. Jackson turned and jerked back as Audial's cable lifted Mikoto and Rafael off the floor and carried them across the room. He turned back to the computer and started dropping in several overrides and random coordinates, pushing Cybertron's further and further down the queue. _I won't let them lock on again._

There were two thuds to his right, and groans of pain from the others, right before the cable came into his peripheral vision. He took a quick glance at it, then at the download progress bar. 100%.

He tapped the key command to eject the flashdrives and lunged onto the desk, right as the cable rushed him. He grabbed the drives and jumped from the desk as the cable came around again, taking the landing as a roll like his mom had taught him. The computer crashed to the floor and he ran as the cable came after him.

Rafael ran past Jackson, a fire axe in hand, and Jackson turned as he reached the wall, seeing him leap and swing at the cable. It dodged and smacked Rafael in the chest, sending him tumbling back into the wall. The axe dropped to the ground, and the cable picked it up.

" ** _Anata wa jaakuna robotto ni ono o ataemashita!_** " Mikoto yelled, even as she put herself between the boys and the cable. For a moment, Jackson saw his mom in her place, throwing herself between him and danger.

But there was no attack, even as the cable raised the axe up and they braced for one. Instead, it slithered out the door and to the right. Jackson took off after it, Mikoto and Rafael with him, and he saw the cable enter the double doors.

When they burst through the doors, Mikoto just ahead of him and Rafael, Audial was climbing out of the broken skylight, but turned to look at them. Rafael whipped his phone out and snapped a picture, the click easily heard in the room's silence.

Audial nodded at them and, like on the _Nemesis_ , an image appeared on her screen, this time of the three of them. She then transformed, becoming some kind of drone and taking off into the sky.

"Why is she leaving?" Rafael asked.

Jackson looked around and spotted the axe embedded in the floor, split cables on either side of it. He went over, and it was a clean cut, all the way through. "She cut the hardline. The dishes are locked onto Cybertron. For good." He smacked his hand down on the floor, and regretted it as a sharp sting shot up his hand.

Mikoto placed her hand on his shoulder. "You did all you could, Jackson. It's not your fault."

"Maybe." Jackson looked at the flashdrives in his other hand. "But we still have these."

"Hey, there is a whole ass dead guy here," Rafael said, and they turned to see a man slumped against one of the servers. They went over and Mikoto placed her hand on the guy's neck, breathing a sigh of relief.

"He's just unconscious. He should be fine. Help me lay him on his side." Once the man was in position, she said, "Let's get back to base."

They left the building the same way they came in, but when they got outside, there already was a groundbridge, and Jackson gasped and smiled when he saw who was stumbling out, holding her head.

"Worse than that bender in San Juan," she muttered as Jackson ran to her.

"MOM!" He wrapped his arms tight around her middle, burying his face into her shirt. He felt tears prick at his eyes, but he didn't care if they fell. His mom was up. She was okay.

"Jackson." Mom wrapped her arms around him, bone crushing tight, and pressed a kiss to his head. "You are grounded until you're twenty-five, young man."

Jackson smiled and nodded without breaking contact. "Yes, ma'am."

"Agent Darby," Mikoto said. "When did you get up?"

"About five minutes ago. I'd have been here sooner, but I got caught up in yelling at Wrencha and Prime for letting you do something so dangerous."

"We're fine, Agent D," Rafael said. "Audial only cut the hardline with the axe, and the guy we found is just unconscious."

"Axe? Guy?"

Jackson pulled back, wiping his eyes with his sleeve. "We'll explain later, Mom. We gotta get these plans to Wrencha first." He showed her the flashdrives.

Mom nodded and guided him to the groundbridge. "Then let's get back there."

* * *

Optima felt the spacebridge shift under her pedes once more and hoped it was a sign of the children's success. But, as she shot at the eradicons still attacking, she was rocked forward as the spacebridge flared to life behind her. She didn't have long to watch it though, as the remaining eradicons seemed to be trying even harder to defeat her team.

She finally threw off the last one she had been grappling with and shot them when a purple light caught her optic. She turned and saw a massive cluster of Dark Energon flying towards the spacebridge. She fired on it, but each shot was just a moment too late, and it sailed over her helm and into the vortex. _No._

"No!" Arc verbalized her thought as he cut down the last eradicon of the "welcoming committee". The team gathered around her, staring into the spacebridge.

"So, how are we supposed to defeat a whole planet of the undead?" Bulka asked.

" _Optima,_ " Wrencha came onto the comms. " _I'm picking up a rapidly expanding mass within the spacebridge vortex. With a Dark Energon signature._ "

"Wrencha, we must destroy the spacebridge," Optima said. "There is enough live energon flowing through the structure to achieve detonation, but we lack the firepower to detonate it."

" _If I knew how the spacebridge was engineered, I might find a technical way to accomplish that feat._ "

" _I've got schematics!_ " Jackson's voice broke over. " _I thought you could use them, so I downloaded them from the computer._ "

" _Optima, I must say that the spacebridge is currently our only hope of returning to Cybertron. Are you certain its destruction is the only option?_ "

"I'm afraid so." Optima knew how this fact would hurt Wrencha. Of all the members of her team, Wrencha was the one who missed Cybertron the most.

" _Then by all means, let us light our darkest hour,_ " Wrencha said.

Optima turned to the _Nemesis_ , and saw a bright purple glow, coming their way. "Autobots, take your positions and follow Wrencha's instructions, while I make my stand."

"Good luck, Optima," Arc said, before leading Bulka and Enerbee away.

Less than a klik later, Megtrona transformed and landed a short distance away. She had cleaned up since their last meeting, but it did nothing to change how fearsome she was. Her chestplates still had a faint purple glow to them, and it cast her scowl into shadow.

"Covering your femmes' retreat, Prime?" she asked over a private commlink, one they had used many times for this purpose. "I should have guessed that Cliffstar was the exception in terms of cowardice."

The mention of her fallen warrior struck Optima's spark like a hammer. But she would not let it show or affect her judgement. "I have no illusions of facing your army head on, Megtrona. But I might derail its objective by cutting off its helm." She released her swords, and held them at ready.

A laugh, as chilling as the one in her dreams. "Highly unlikely," and the scowl became a near-feral grin as her chestplates brightened and she drew her own sword. "For I am infused with their very might!"

"One shall stand." Optima threw the opening words out there, a ritual older than the War, almost older than them both. The promise of rivals and enemies as far back as could be remembered.

"One shall fall," Megtrona finished. "YOU, PRIME!" And she charged.

Their first strikes clashed as they ran past each other, blade on blade. Optima turned, and swung low at Megtrona's waist, helm down. Megtrona's blade went over her, and Optima lunged forward. Megtrona turned in time to avoid the strike, and then twisted the opposite way to punch Optima in her face.

Optima reared back, and then bent all the way back to avoid Megtrona's next swing. Her blade came up to block the reverse swing, and her other blade transformed out and she stabbed at Megtrona's chassis.

Megtrona saw the attack and disengaged, jumping back and dragging her blade along the ground to bring herself to a stop. "Dirty trick."

"You would do the same." Optima charged in, one blade in front and one behind, and swung the first to knock Megtrona's blade aside before stabbing with the other.

Megtrona caught the blade with her free servo, and pushed it up, shoving herself into Optima's personal space. Optima pulled back enough Megtrona could not lock her denta on her neck. Instead, Megtrona screamed in her face, a guttural cry that had certainly unnerved many mecha in the past.

Optima didn't flinch, bringing her leg up to kick Megtrona back and breaking free of the lock. The two began circling each other, and Optima only had time for one free thought before she and Megtrona went back at it.

_I hope they will have enough time._

Their fight went on for several more kliks, the two femmes clashing with each other, until Optima made one misstep, which allowed Megtrona to get in with a punch to her face, followed by an attempted stab to her lower chassis. Optima dodged and raised her right blade to attack, but Megtrona was faster and sliced upwards. Her force was strong enough Optima's blade was sheared in two, and the top half of it went flying somewhere behind her.

 _Wrencha's not going to be happy._ Optima tried to attack with her left blade, but Megtrona first blocked it, then grabbed the blade with her other servo and pulled Optima off her pedes, slamming her into the ground. Optima twisted her arm to free it from Megtrona's grip, but the warlord then kicked her in the helm so hard, her optics and audials shorted and she only rolled out of the way of the downward strike thanks to teravorn of battle experience and reading Megtrona's EM field.

She rebooted her optics, blinking harshly to recalibrate them as she looked up to Megtrona, who seemed to be on a comm call with someone. She rebooted her audials next, just as Megtrona fixed her a hard glare.

"Misdirection, Prime. You can't even settle things the Decepticon way." She finally swung down, but Optima crossed her blades, broken and unbroken, into an "X".

"I chose my side." Optima pushed up, shoving Megtrona off her, before transforming her broken blade into her blaster and sending a blast into Megtrona's chassis.

The warlord was pushed away from Optima, flipping around in the vacuum until she managed to stabilize herself, just before she would have fallen into the spacebridge's vortex. The glare she leveled at Optima was fierce enough to almost blister her paint.

"Yes," she snarled. "You did." She transformed, even as Optima fired at her again, and took off, heading the same direction as her team.

"Arc! Megtrona is on her way. Be careful!"

* * *

Arc didn't like the idea of running off and leaving Optima to fend for herself, but he also knew that of them all, only she could hold up against Megtrona, and was the only one who could keep her attention away from their plan.

Wrencha's directions led them to a spot on the underside of the spacebridge, in a spot that was only noticeable due to the symmetrical splits that were obviously maintenance panels.

"Wrencha, we're in position."

" _Pay close attention, Arc,_ " Wrencha said. " _You need to find a panel marked with a six-sided crystal inside a box._ "

Arc looked at the different panels, but Enerbee was the one to spot it. ":Here!:" she said, pointing to it. It was worn in, like it'd been salvaged from a different piece of tech.

"Found it. What now, Wrencha?"

" _Remove the panel, and there should be a series of wires, a line of pipes, and a switchbox._ "

Arc's servos were the only ones narrow enough to fit the gaps in the panels (given it was built by vehicons and eradicons, it wasn't surprising), but once there was enough of a gap, Bulka took over moving the panel out of the way, throwing it to the side. As Wrencha said, there were some pipes and a box of switches. "What next?"

" _You need to flip all the switches so that all their lights are glowing red. That will set the circuits into overload._ "

Arc did so, trusting Enerbee and Bulka to watch his back. Most of the switches were stiff, but he managed to get them. "Done."

" _Now there should be a silver box with a dial. That is the flow regulator, and needs to be turned all the way up._ "

Arc looked and found it, and cranked the dial all the way to the right. A small screen above it changed from reading "50.00" to "100.00".

"Next?"

" _Now follow the line from the flow regulator to the energon pump. There should be a valve._ "

"I see it."

" _Good. Turn it and reverse the currents. That will turn the spacebridge's power against itself._ "

Arc pressed a button and the valve lever rose out of the ground, two arms sticking out of the top. It was stiff, meant for femmes stronger than he was, but by putting his whole bodyweight behind it, he managed to make it turn, and the whole valve began to crackle and glow with charged energon. "Current reversed."

" _Good. Now head to the rendezvous coordinates, quickly. I'll ready the groundbridge._ "

" _Arc!_ " Optima's voice broke into the comms. " _Megtrona is on her way. Be careful!_ "

And her words were quickly proven true, for Megtrona appeared above them.

"Run!" Arc said, and the three took off, heading to the coordinates Wrencha had provided. A rain of blaster fire fell around them, and Arc began his transformation sequence to better avoid them. But, just halfway through, a shot hit his back.

His vocalizer shouted out a scream as he felt the concentrated energon - Dark Energon - tear through his system. His spark flared critically, his HUD exploded with errors, and it was all he could do to not fall into stasis. He vaguely registered Enerbee catching him before he could drift away, and the sudden return of gravity inside the groundbridge.

* * *

Shatterglass had taken Megtrona's place on the bridge when her master had left it, and so she had a clear view of what was happening on the spacebridge, including the cracks and broken plating from whatever it was the Autobots had done. She ordered the _Nemesis_ 's retreat, to protect itself from the detonation, but Megtrona was still at ground zero.

" _Shatterglass,_ " Megtrona roared on the comm. " _Where is my ship?_ "

"We'd never make it, Lady Megtrona," she explained, fear and worry steadily slipping into her tone. "Detonation is only nanokliks away. Take flight and retreat!"

" _No!_ " Megtrona's silhouette was dark against the light of the bridge and Shatterglass could easily see her flying into the vortex. " _My legion!_ "

"MEGTRONA!"

The spacebridge exploded in a bright flash, so bright her optics automatically dimmed to compensate for it. An alert on the console told her that the shockwave of the explosion did very minor, superficial damage to the ship, but she couldn't think of that. She just stared, transfixed on the spot Megtrona had vanished from, looking for a shape, a glint, something in the rubble that would reveal her survival.

But there was nothing, only rocks and metal.

The bridge was utterly silent as she bowed her helm and activated the ship's comm. "Let it be noted for the log, our Lady Megtrona's spark… has been extinguished." She looked up at the console once more, optics holding a steely glint.

* * *

Mikoto gripped the railing tight as she watched the groundbridge, waiting for the 'Bots to return.

"Do you think they…?" Jackson trailed off and Juno squeezed his shoulder.

Wrencha opened a panel on her arm and read off a screen there. "Four life signals. One… very faint."

The groundbridge flashed and Optima stepped through, battered and scuffed, but standing tall. Bulka was right behind her.

"Bulka!" Rafael cheered, and ran to the green 'Bot. She knelt and reached a hand down, which Rafael hugged for a moment, then he jumped back and offered a fist bump.

The bridge sounded again, and Mikoto gasped as Enerbee ran in, Arc cradled in her arms. "Arc!" She ran down the stairs and stopped in front of them, Wrencha right behind her.

"We've lost one this orn," she said, running her scanners over Arc. "By the AllSpark, don't let it be two."

Mikoto reached up and touched Arc's hand. "Please be okay, Arc. Please."

Arc's eyes blinked open and he smirked down at her. "Really, Ko? There are other motorcycles out there."

"None like you. And you are my first." She blushed a little as she said it, but it was true.

Above them, Wrencha released a great sigh of relief, closing her arm plating. "You need another decon bath and I'll need to replace a few fuses. But you'll be okay."

Enerbee buzzed something and stood, carrying Arc towards the medbay. Mikoto wanted to follow, but she didn't want to get in the way of whatever a decon bath required.

"And Megtrona?" Wrencha asked, and Mikoto looked up to Optima.

Optima bowed her head. "Not even she could survive ground zero." She sounded sad. Was she upset that Megtrona died? She had said that they were like sisters once, but….

"Optima." Juno's voice cut off Mikoto's train of thought. "I never got to thank you for the saves. I'm still mad about how Jackson got involved." She squeezed his shoulder from where she stood behind him. "But I owe you one. The whole world owes you one."

"It is simply our duty, Juno." Optima nodded to her.

"So, is this the part where we say goodbye and you tell us to forget this ever happened?" Jackson asked, and Rafael laughed.

"Like that'd even be possible for you," he said.

"The Decepticons are routed, but not defeated," Optima said. "And as you are confirmed to be our allies now, I cannot in any conscience leave you to fend for yourselves."

"Meaning…?" Rafael asked.

Optima retracted her battlemask to reveal a small smile. "Meaning you will remain under our protection for as long as the Decepticons are a threat."

"Yes!" Rafael jumped and pumped his fist. "You know what? We just saved the world, we should have a party!"

"Oh, Primus, no," Wrencha said, reaching a hand up to pinch the white piece of armor that extended to the center of her face.

"A party sounds great," Bulka said.

"We still got most of the snacks from last night," Jackson pointed out.

Mikoto smiled. "This is one party I definitely won't be skipping out on."

* * *

Optima managed to get herself away from the party after a while. She knew this was a victory, and she should not deny her team a chance to celebrate it. But she needed at least a few moments away. She retreated to her room and sat on the berth.

Only then, in total privacy, did she allow a few tears for Megtrona to fall. Yes, they were mortal enemies, and every clash she knew Megtrona was always intending to kill her. But, they had been sisters once, and the a _mica_ bond remained stubbornly strong on her end.

Once she had wept and dried her tears, she pulled a datapad from her subspace and turned it on. She'd been too busy to make a log the past few dium, so she made quick summaries of what had happened since Cliffstar's death.

"... Log date 12.300.6891. Megtrona fell. Her plan to attack and conquer Earth was foiled by my team, and by the children we have recently taken into our care. With their help, we were able to destroy the Decepticon spacebridge, along with all the terrorcons within the vortex and Megtrona in the blast. Shatterglass will likely take leadership now, and we will prepare for her retaliation. But until that comes, we will take strength in the bonds we have forged with our young friends. True warriors, if not in body then in spirit. With the spacebridge destroyed and no means of returning to Cybertron, we are here to stay on Earth. Any Decepticon who threaten it will face our might. We will defend ourselves. We will defend humanity. We will defend our home."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And here is Darkness Rising, and here I shall leave you for a while. I am not abandoning this fic, far from it, but I am currently only halfway through the Students & Masters rewrite, and I would prefer to have a backlog of chapters I can update biweekly as opposed to a "update whenever a chapter finishes" method. I will start posting again when I get to the Partners rewrite, but I am unsure when that will be.
> 
> So what'd you guys think of this chapter? Any particular scene stand out? Let me know in the reviews!
> 
> Also, if anyone is interested, I have a discord server for the purpose of talking about my fics and Transformers in general. The invite code is **discord.gg/cburh9Y**.
> 
>  **Japanese Translations:**  
>  Anata wa jaakuna robotto ni ono o ataemashita! - You gave the evil robot an axe!
> 
>  **Spanish Translations:**  
>  Munequita - "Dolly"  
> Cerebro - Brain
> 
>  **Technical Notes**  
>  Nanoklik - 1 Second  
> Klik - 1.2 Minutes  
> Dium - 1 Day  
> Orn - 13 Days  
> Quartex - 6 Months  
> Groon - 1.71 Years  
> Vorn - 82 Years  
> Teravorn - 1024 Years

**Author's Note:**

> Genderbend Cast
> 
> Cliffstar - Cliffjumper  
> Arc - Arcee  
> Optima Prime - Optimus Prime  
> Wrencha - Ratchet  
> Bulka - Bulkhead  
> Enerbee - Bumblebee  
> Shatterglass - Starscream  
> Audial - Soundwave  
> Megtrona - Megatrona  
> Tremair - Skyquake  
> Wheela - Wheeljack  
> Changling - Makeshift  
> Knock Out (KO) - Knockout  
> Breakin - Breakdown  
> Turretulas - Airachnid  
> Direwind - Dreadwing  
> Smokeveil - Smokescreen  
> Shockrider - Shockwave  
> Ultra Magna - Ultra Magnus  
> Prediqueen - Predaking
> 
> Some of these characters will not be seen for a while, but I figure the whole cast would be easier to post than trying to remember who I've already introduced.
> 
>  **Technical Notes:**  
>  Autobots have adopted an understanding of human time units and will use them when interacting with humans to prevent confusion. Internal musings or in conversation between each other, they’ll use their native cybertronian time units. Decepticons will use cybertronian time units almost exclusively.
> 
> Nanoklik - 1 Second  
> Klik - 1.2 Minutes  
> Breem - 8.3 Minutes  
> Cycle - 1 Hour  
> Joor - 6.5 Hours  
> Dium - 1 Day  
> Orn - 13 Days  
> Quartex - 6 Months  
> Groon - 1.71 Years  
> Vorn - 82 Years  
> Teravorn - 1024 Years


End file.
